Africa could supply the whole world with affordable low-carbon energy in the form of hydrogen, a new report suggests.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) says that Africa’s abundant renewable resources, primarily solar energy but also onshore wind, are the key to realising this potential in its Africa Energy Outlook 2022.
According to the IEA, Africa could create 5,000 megatonnes of hydrogen annually for less than $2 per kilogram, which is equal to the “world total energy supply today.”
Is hydrogen a sustainable option?
According to the US Energy Information Administration, hydrogen is a natural and highly energetic gas that naturally occurs in water and fossil fuels including natural gas, coal, and petroleum. By removing hydrogen from various sources, it can be used as fuel.
Hydrogen is referred to as “green hydrogen” when it is created using renewable energy sources like the sun or wind to separate the hydrogen from the oxygen in water molecules.
Only water is produced as waste when hydrogen is used as a fuel. This makes it more environmentally friendly than burning fossil fuels, which cause air pollution and contribute to global warming by creating carbon dioxide.
Africa’s big hydrogen potential
Africa has one of the world’s biggest potentials for producing hydrogen from low-cost renewable electricity, the IEA says. Africa has 60% of the world’s best solar resources, but only 1% of current solar generation capacity. Wind power is also a big resource. Arid and semi‐arid areas are ideal for wind and solar, the IEA says, especially in North Africa, the Horn of Africa and Southern Africa.
By 2030, Africa could produce 80% of the new power generation it needs from solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal and other renewable energies, the IEA says. The falling cost of both solar units and hydrogen production is predicted to further increase Africa’s hydrogen potential. In the IEA’s model, this results in Africa’s $2-per-kilogramme hydrogen being up to half the price of hydrogen from the rest of the world.
Africa’s energy challenges
About 600 million people – 43% of Africa’s population – currently don’t have access to electricity. Most of these people live in sub-Saharan Africa. Countries including Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda will be on track for full access by 2030, the IEA predicts in its Sustainable Africa Scenario.
This is mostly achieved by extending national grids, it says. In rural areas – where most people without access to electricity live – solar mini-grids and standalone systems are the most viable solutions. To reach universal access to affordable electricity by 2030, Africa will need to connect 90 million people a year, the IEA says. This is three times the rate of recent years.
Hydrogen is seen as one of the answers.
How is hydrogen used in Africa today?
Hydrogen is currently used in industry to make fertilizer based on ammonia – a common crop nutrient – and to refine oil in North Africa and Nigeria. This hydrogen is mostly extracted from natural gas and coal and is not low-carbon, the IEA says. But in the IEA’s model of future energy use in Africa, strong policy support and infrastructure investment trigger “rapid growth in the production and domestic uptake of low‐carbon hydrogen”.
By 2030, this leads to “significant potential” to export to demand centres in Europe.
The IEA notes that a number of low-carbon hydrogen projects are already underway or under discussion in Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, Namibia and South Africa.
