On a visit to South Africa to support the development of the country’s green hydrogen economy, on Monday 9 September the European Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, sketched out the contours of a ‘match-making platform’ to match European demand with green hydrogen producers around the world.
Highlighting the results of the European Hydrogen Bank’s first auction for the domestic production of green hydrogen (see EUROPE 13473/16), Commissioner Simson said that the European Commission would announce and launch this new international platform, as a mechanism “to support the development of the green hydrogen market abroad”, in mid-2025.
“To do this, we need global project developers who are ready to bring green hydrogen projects on stream by 2030”, she said.
Following on from its support for Namibia (see EUROPE 13476/6), the EU is continuing its drive to build a network of partners by announcing financial support for South Africa to support its energy transition and develop its renewable hydrogen value chain.
Ms Simson indicated that 140 million rand (around €7 million) will be earmarked for implementing the strategy of the South African rail, port and pipeline infrastructure company Transnet to achieve carbon neutrality in these sectors and other logistics activities.
In addition, almost 500 million rand (€25 million) will be deployed exclusively for the development and construction of primary infrastructure for the green hydrogen value chain in South Africa. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)