President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to officially open and address the special-edition Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium South Africa (SIDSSA) in Cape Town this week, which will focus exclusively on green hydrogen.
The South Africa Green Hydrogen Summit, as the event is branded, will be held in Cape Town at Century City, from Monday until Wednesday.
Ramaphosa will deliver the keynote address on Tuesday.
“South Africa is one of the founding members of the Africa Green Hydrogen Alliance (AGHA), which seeks to promote continental green hydrogen cooperation.
“The Summit builds on the opportunities identified during the Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium South Africa of 2021,” the Presidency said on Sunday.
One of the highlights of the symposium was South Africa’s emergence as a potential global exporter of green energy with major investment support from Sasol and Anglo-American boosting the country’s green hydrogen projects.
“Green hydrogen was identified as a ‘Big Frontier’ in the Country Investment Strategy, indicating that it represents both current and future growth and investment potential for South Africa.
“The inaugural infrastructure summit highlighted the Green Hydrogen Summit as a viable sector for strategic investment and government support in the country,” the Presidency said.
Senior expert delegates from around the continent and Europe will address the conference.
This week’s summit will focus on:
- Bringing together role players, such as project sponsors, decision makers in government, financing institutions, international authorities, and academic institutions, to enable knowledge sharing and, most importantly, enabling an environment conducive to forging long-term working relationships;
- Concentrating targeted green hydrogen engagement events aimed at popularising the Green Hydrogen Economy and its potential in South Africa;
- Drawing lessons from other countries on their individual journeys as it relates to building an economy around green hydrogen and decarbonisation;
- Drawing interest in exports and domestic utilisation underpinned by green hydrogen’s potential to combine South Africa’s mineral endowment with its renewable energy endowment to drive beneficiation and reindustrialisation.
- SAnews.gov.za
