South Africa and Flanders want to work together on green hydrogen | Inland

Today South Africa is dealing with a lot of blackouts of the power grid. Outdated infrastructure and massive population growth are driving up the demand for electricity, putting pressure on the grid. The country – the most industrialized in Africa – is therefore looking, among other things, in the direction of green hydrogen, also to make the switch to renewable energy. Today, electricity is mainly generated by coal-fired power stations.

South Africa already has the circumstances with it. With a lot of sun and coast, it looks like the promised land for renewable energy and green hydrogen that can be produced with that energy. Even though electricity from solar and wind is still in its infancy, the country wants to focus fully on green hydrogen, says Minister for Education, Science and Technology Bonginkosi Nzimande.

For this development, it wants to collaborate with other countries, and then Belgium is also being looked at. Our country already has the necessary companies, infrastructure – such as the Fluxys pipelines – and ports to purchase green hydrogen. And there is a lot of know-how available. “We are asking for cooperation”, was the message from Jambon during his meeting with Nzimande.

Moreover, there is already a lot of collaboration between Flanders and South Africa in the field of research and technology. For example, VITO (the Flemish institute for technological research) is working together with its South African counterpart CSIR on battery storage. VITO supplies the test bench and the necessary know-how to South Africa to test large batteries. With such extra storage capacity, the country wants to avoid the blackouts. A new cooperation agreement on this was signed in Pretoria on Tuesday, in the presence of Flemish Prime Minister Jambon.

Jambon is on a working visit to South Africa this week, where political, cultural and economic contacts are on the agenda.