Every Friday, SAfm’s radio anchor Sakina Kamwendo speaks to Martin Creamer, publishing editor of Engineering News & Mining Weekly. Reported here is this Friday’s At the Coalface transcript:

Kamwendo: On Tuesday, South Africa will launch a R75-billion project aimed at combating climate change.

Creamer: This is fantastic news. The South African economy is in desperate need big mega projects like this one. The opportunity is there now to do this in style. The company Hive Hydrogen, led by former Eskom CEO Thulani Gabashe, is going to go ahead in Nelson Mandela Bay with the formal launch of this R75-billion landmark project. That is a launch full of confidence because they have still to complete the bankable feasibility studies on this green ammonia initiative. But the world is wanting this, because it is wanting to get its hands on green ammonia and also green hydrogen, from which it can be extracted.

The project involves first producing the green hydrogen, which they will do using solar power and wind power from Nelson Mandela Bay. We know that Gqeberha, which was formerly Port Elizabeth, is known as the Windy City. They not only have a lot of wind there, they have got a lot of sun, too, and they are going to use the sea water to produce hydrogen and then mix that with nitrogen and will be exporting the resulting green ammonia. There is a big demand. The project has already received bankable acceptance from a global player who is prepared to buy everything they produce there, which is quite rare when a project is still at such an early stage of development. It shows you the big momentum in the world for clean green energy. This will come through hopefully in 2025/26. The Far East is looking for this.

The very ships that will take it from the deep water port at Coega will probably be using green ammonia themselves as a fuel. That is how fast things are changing in the world. This is all to mitigate against climate change. 

Kamwendo: Countries that transition to clean energy are more likely to attract foreign direct investment.

Creamer: This has been emphasised in webinar after webinar. These have been global webinars. In one of those the United Nations Special Envoy on Climate Change Action and Finance Mark Carney, he said that the money is available. What he wants from the countries are their plans. Countries must present their plans to mitigate against climate change.

They must show what they are going to do, because $130-trillion is available to fund climate-mitigating projects. So, Carney is saying that funders can, in the next 28 years, lend out $4-trillion to $5-trillion a year. They have got sufficient funds. What they want are some plans and they want 50% of this to be done by 2030. This is an amazing opportunity for South Africa to create more economic activity.

The country just needs to put in its plans and put in good plans like we have seen now at Port Elizabeth that have been put in by Thulani Gcabashe, the former CEO of Eskom. He knows what this is all about because he has been in renewable energy for some time now.

Kamwendo: Thanks very much. Martin Creamer is publishing editor of Engineering News & Mining Weekly.