AltGen’s Fireside Chats: Realistic Timelines for Green Hydrogen Projects in Africa
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There’s so much to talk about…when it comes to green hydrogen that we have decided to host a series of Fireside chats. For this first session, we will be discussing some of the challenges that green hydrogen projects face according to the professionals. We spoke to developers and project experts who, in collaboration with their partners, currently have green hydrogen projects underway.
AltGen’s Burning Questions
- What really is the biggest barrier facing Africa’s green hydrogen economy?
- Realistically, how long will it take Africa to fully develop and begin producing green hydrogen?
- Will carbon taxes cause destructive delays in Africa’s green hydrogen transition, or will they propel them forward?
First on AltGen’s panel of experts, is Davin Chown, MD of Genesis Eco-Energy. Davin has an embedded knowledge of the energy landscape, as well as political and ESG environments impacting power projects in southern Africa. And, perhaps most importantly, he says it how it is. The second panelist is WKN Windcurrent’s Power-to-X Programme Manager, Akhil Woodraj. Finally, we spoke with Chariot Energy Group’s Laurent Coche, CEO of Chariot Green Hydrogen, and Guillaume De Kleijn, Senior Advisor. Additional comments and context were provided by Tom Dopstadt, Legal Business Development Manager at Yamna and Olaf Marting, CEO at Ekonami.
Top challenges shortlisted by our Panelists
Today we’ll be tackling the first challenge…communication. This Fireside Chat is the first in a series of four.
- Communication
- Overload of Information
- Policy and Legislation
- Finding Skills at Scale
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Communication: ‘Language Barriers and Perceptions’
“There is often a lack of understanding between the finance houses and the engineering guys. They speak in different languages. Sometimes you need to dilute the complexity of the information that needs to be communicated in order to bridge the gap between these two worlds so that they can understand their respective risk profiles.”
– Olaf Marting, CEO – Ekonami
“In order for there to be meaningful movement in the green hydrogen sector in South Africa, we need a coordinated effort from government and private stakeholders to ensure policies aid the implementation of projects.”
– Akhil Woodraj, Power-to-X- Programme Manager – WKN Windcurrent
Bridging this ‘language’ gap that exists between the various stakeholders in the industry is crucial in streamlining the decision-making processes that ultimately control whether a project will see the light of day or not.
So how do we do this?
1) Let’s agree to disagree
“Dialogue is about listening, not about answering. Rather than constantly listing challenges to green hydrogen projects, we need to seek to understand what we are aiming for and discuss how we can achieve it collectively.”
– Priscilla Gibson, United Kingdom Managing Director – AltGen
“I would like to see the definition of green hydrogen to converge across different jurisdictions over time. This would benefit many market stakeholders by allowing them to comply with a single set of criteria rather than multiple ones. Convergence of criteria is crucial because they impact project design and the price of green hydrogen.”
“Green hydrogen is fundamentally changing the way that we understand the world. Only project leaders skilled in facilitating open dialogues, checking their biases, and productively moving conversations forward, will be successful.”
– Priscilla Gibson, United Kingdom Managing Director – AltGen
2) Develop strong partnerships
“Although hydrogen is still a relatively nascent industry, overcoming some of the main challenges will require strategic partnerships along the full hydrogen value chain.”
3) Approach the issue wholistically
“You can announce all these projects but if you don’t start working with government and your competitors, your colleagues in this industry, development banks, and other stakeholders to put these local content plans in place, you’re eventually going to get stuck. We need to understand what the different socio-economic development plans are for these countries and how we can we best fit into them.”