INFORMATION SHARING SEMINAR: “Opportunities for research collaboration and skills development between South Africa and Europe in regards to Green Hydrogen” The South African Embassy in Brussels is pleased to invite you to a seminar and information sharing session titled:
“Opportunities for research collaboration and skills development between South Africa and Europe in regards to Green Hydrogen”. Join us for a
hybrid event on
Tuesday, 7th March, at
11:00 to 13:00 Brussels time.
Globally, the demand for green hydrogen (H2) and green hydrogen-based Power-to-X products such as ammonia and synthetic jet fuels (PtX) is rising. To fulfil decarbonisation targets, many off-takers (e.g., EU and Japan) are willing to pay a premium price and to sign long-term supply agreements to stimulate H2/PtX market development. Due to the outstanding potential of renewable energies (RE) and existing H2 production facilities, South Africa is regarded as one of the main future suppliers of green H2 products.
Building a H2 economy could open-up promising new export markets for South African companies, as well as domestic use opportunities. This could also lead to significant economic development and job creation while playing a role in supporting a just energy transition in the South African energy sector. Despite the promising conditions available for the development of a H2 economy in the country, certain challenges still exist. The development of a green H2/PtX market requires a massive expansion of low-cost RE capacities.
Against this backdrop, establishing a new sector will require skills and capacities. Therefore, there is a need to identifying the skills that will be required to service the hydrogen sector and work towards ensuring the availability of these skills and capacities.
Under the Horizon Europe programme, the
Clean Hydrogen Partnership Call for Proposals was published on 31 January 2023 with a total of €195m available for projects. The aim of the call is to provide support in the creation of “cutting-edge hydrogen technologies”.
11h00 Moderator, Welcome and Opening Remarks Mr Declan Kirrane, Founder and Managing Director of ISC Intelligence in Science, the chairman and managing director of the science Summit at the United Nations General assembly
11h05 Overview of EU and SA Hydrogen Economy ActivitiesMs Cecile Leemans, Team Leader for Global South, International Relations Unit, DG ENERGY, European Commission
Ms Eudy Mabuza, Senior Science and Innovation Representative to Brussels, South African Department of Science and Innovation
11h35 South Africa’s Master Skills Plan and the Hydrogen Economy Sasol & NRF Call: Research to Enable SA’s Energy Transition & Green Economy Ms Nolwazi Gasa, Deputy Director General: Planning, South African Department of Higher Education and Training
Ms Mamphoku Khuluvhe, Director: System Monitoring and Labour Market Intelligence, South African Department of Higher Education and Training
Dr Eugene Lottering, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, South African National Research Foundation
11h55 South African Research Activities from Entities (10 minutes presentation each)Prof Dmitri Bessarabov, Director:
HySA Infrastructure (Hydrogen Production, Storage and Delivery) Centre of Competence, co-hosted by the North-West University and the Council for Scientific and Industrial and Research
Dr Alex Vogel, Expert Future Technology Research and Technology Energy Operations and Technology, Sasol South Africa (Ltd)
Ms Zanele Mavuso-Mbatha, Chief Executive Officer, Bambili Energy
Mr Niels Luchters, Co-founder, Director and Chief Executive Officer: HYENA, Hydrogen Energy Applications (Pty) Ltd
12h35 Closing remarks Mr Declan Kirrane, Founder and Managing Director of ISC Intelligence in Science, the chairman and managing director of the science Summit at the United Nations General assembly
BACKGROUNDThe
Clean Hydrogen Partnership Call for Proposals was published on 31 January 2023 is hydrogen research call for proposals with a total of €195m available for projects. The purpose of the call is to support and fast-track the creation of cutting-edge hydrogen technologies.
The Clean Hydrogen Partnership is a public private partnership that supports research and innovation activities in hydrogen technologies across Europe, and is due to receive a total of €1bn from the European Union for the 2021-2027 period with potential for a further €1bn from private investment.
The funding available will be split into:
- €49m for renewable hydrogen production
- €36m for hydrogen storage and distribution
- €25.5m for transport
- €19m for heat and power
- €7.5m for cross-cutting
- €38m for hydrogen valleys
- Aa further €20m for the strategic research challenge.
The topics in the call will be split into 11 Innovation Actions, 13 Research & Innovation Actions, and 2 Coordinated & Support Actions, with 5 of the Innovation Actions considered of strategic importance and are selected as flagship projects.
The European Union has set a target of 10 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen production by 2030 as well as importing the same amount, marking a 20 million tonnes/year market by the end of the decade, according to the REPowerEU directive. The research call is currently open since 31 January and is due to close on 18 April 2023.
Add to your schedule to access the video stream
