How Green Hydrogen is Changing The Energy Landscape.
Hydrogen has been described as ‘the fuel of the future’, always promising results that somehow seem just out of reach. Now it looks like the future is on the horizon.
South Africa is not only well-positioned to adopt the manufacture of green hydrogen, but this could provide much-needed employment opportunities, energy generation, the balance of payment inflows and a host of other economic benefits.
What is green Hydrogen?
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe with a high energy density and is becoming increasingly attractive as an alternative to fossil fuels. Hydrogen is a compelling form of energy for transportation and storage that could unlock greater potential for other forms of renewable electricity generation. For example, hydrogen provides a crucial solution to the challenges of intermittent supply and demand peaks associated with wind, solar and hydroelectricity generation. To this effect, hydrogen offers a viable means of storing energy which can then be converted to electricity.
Several countries have touted green hydrogen as a vital component of their decarbonization strategies and post-fossil-fuels-based economies. This is because, the byproducts of hydrogen through combustion or electrochemical reaction are, simply, heat and water. Green hydrogen, then, is hydrogen that has been produced using renewable energies through a process of electrolysis (see Figure 1).
