The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) will bring a delegation of South African clean energy sector decision-makers to the US to build partnerships between the countries to accelerate the development of South Africa’s green hydrogen ecosystem.

The 14-member delegation of government, private and financial sector representatives will meet US companies and see demonstrations of cutting-edge US technologies. The delegation will visit from January 28 to February 7, the USTDA said.

In Houston, delegates will also join an interactive financing panel and meet with representatives of the US Department of Energy and Rice University. In San Francisco, they will visit the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

"The USTDA will host a public business briefing in Houston on January 30 where US companies can learn about upcoming commercial opportunities from the South African delegation and meet one-on-one with delegates to present their innovative green hydrogen solutions," the US trade agency says.

Further, the US private sector is a leader in technologies to produce, transport and use green hydrogen, which is expected to play a critical role in the decarbonisation of heavy industry and freight transport.

"South Africa has identified green hydrogen as a key component of its energy transition, as reflected in its Just Energy Transition Investment Plan, and as a way to spur economic growth and development by capitalising on its existing industrial base and abundant renewable energy resources," the USTDA notes.

The trade mission follows a 2022 USTDA-hosted workshop in Cape Town that convened US industry and South African stakeholders to discuss technical, regulatory and enabling environment topics to catalyse the green hydrogen sector in South Africa and open market opportunities for US companies.

"This trade mission supports the US government’s Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment to deliver game-changing projects to close the infrastructure gap in developing countries; the South Africa Just Energy Transition Partnership; and the USTDA’s Global Partnership for Climate-Smart Infrastructure that connects US industry to major clean energy and transportation infrastructure projects in emerging economies," it adds.