West Africa has the potential to generate 165,000 TWh of green hydrogen, 1500x the hydrogen demand of Germany.
Federal Research Minister Anja Karliczek presented the “Potential Atlas of Green Hydrogen” together with the Innovation Representative “Green Hydrogen” Dr. Stefan Kaufmann. It analyses potentials for the production and export of green hydrogen in western and southern Africa.
Anja Karliczek, Federal Research Minister explains:
If we want to give our children and grandchildren a planet worth living in, we need to put our energy supply on new pillars.
“Green hydrogen, which is produced using renewable energies, is a key technology for this.
Many African countries have very good conditions for the production of green hydrogen. We would like to start a cooperation with them. For this purpose, we have investigated in the Potential Atlas of Green Hydrogen which countries are best suited for this purpose.
The result is remarkable: West Africa has a production potential of up to 165,000 terawatt hours of green hydrogen per year. This is about 1500 times the hydrogen demand of Germany for 2030 in the National Hydrogen Strategy. In other words, the energy is already sufficient to meet Germany’s electricity needs 300 times!
Green hydrogen offers a real opportunity to initiate a development in Africa driven by the African states themselves. The region can become a global “powerhouse” thanks to green hydrogen. It is very important to me that we do not want to import energy from there until the local market is covered.
A partnership between Africa and Germany therefore means a win-win situation: Africa can supply itself with energy and benefit from hydrogen exports. Germany meets its demand for green hydrogen and benefits economically from technology exports.”
Dr. Stefan Kaufmann MdB, Innovation Officer “Green Hydrogen”, adds:
We think the topic of hydrogen is big, green and global – with everything that goes with it.
“That is why we intend to launch the first pilot projects in Africa this year. In doing so, we involve companies and investors from the outset. Already in June we are running an industrial workshop in Germany. A Green Hydrogen Summit is also to be held in Togo later this year.
In addition, we will train trained specialists directly on site. To this end, together with the West African Climate Competence Centre WASCAL, we have launched a graduate school programme to train the experts of tomorrow.
The scholarship program has met with an incredible response. The first of three scheduled passes will start later this year.
The potential atlas shows that West Africa offers enormous opportunities in the run-up to a green hydrogen economy to build a sustainable energy system and new value chains. We want to share these opportunities for technological progress.
Our goal is to make cooperation with our African partner countries a real win-win for all involved. In my numerous conversations, I feel a great will to design and a spirit of departure. We want to combine this creative power in the coming months and years.”
Dr. Moumini Savadogo, Managing Director of the WASCAL Climate Competence Centre in Ghana, adds:
The potential atlas Africa is just one example of our strong cooperation with Germany, summarized in our case under “Go green Go Africa”.
“We want to establish a hydrogen partnership and strategic measures – through a consistent scientific approach, starting with the Atlas for Green Hydrogen Production Potentials. It paves the way for solid investment in a climate-safe and green economy.”
“This is complemented by the ongoing analysis of effective political, legal and institutional frameworks through close cooperation with the ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE).”
Thanks to the partnership with the BMBF and the German partner institutions, the new scholarship program for the international master’s degree programme in energy and green hydrogen technology for students from all ECOWAS countries has now been launched. The response has been overwhelming.
I am convinced that, together with Germany, we still have a long way to come in the development of a sustainable green hydrogen economy, but thanks to our long-standing partnership and the great mutual trust, we will also achieve this. Once again, I would like to thank all our supporters and look forward to many more exciting activities.”
Background:
The BMBF is funding the joint project “H2-Atlas: Atlas of the Potential seofes of Green Hydrogen Production in Africa” from 2020 to 2022 with around 5.7 million euros. The feasibility study has two objectives. The first purpose of this is to find suitable sites for the production of green hydrogen. Secondly, the production, transport and further processing of green hydrogen in Africa will be tested.
The potential atlas is intended to identify suitable regions for German and African investors to develop green hydrogen technologies.
The first results for the 15 ECOWAS countries show that three-quarters of West Africa’s land area is suitable for wind turbines. Electricity generation costs are only about half of the comparable costs in Germany. In addition, photovoltaic systems can be operated economically on about one third of the country’s surface area.
This availability of wind and solar power could allow West Africa to produce up to 165,000 TWh of green hydrogen annually. According to the Potential Atlas, 120,000 TWh of these 165,000 TWh could already be produced today for less than 2.50 euros. By way of comparison, green hydrogen currently costs around 7 to 10 euros per kilogram in Germany.
The feasibility study takes into account a considerate and sustainable use of resources when calculating production potentials. The water availability calculations therefore relate to the quantities of water that are not needed to meet current but also future local needs.
Even without the use of seawater desalination, about 20 percent of the production potential can still be exploited. However, seawater desalination would only slightly increase the production price of green hydrogen in West Africa.
The first variables of the Potential Atlas West Africa can be shown in an interactive map under h2atlas.de. Further data are expected to follow in June 2021, for example on the costs of seawater desalination, hydrogen export and energy/water transport. The evaluation of data collection in southern Africa will also be supplemented.
In September 2021, a Master’s Graduate School Programme on Green Hydrogen Technologies will be launched to train scientific specialists in Africa. The research centre Jülich, the RWTH Aachen and WASCAL are involved.
Students from all 15 countries of the West African Economic Area (ECOWAS) can apply. In the first three rounds, around 180 students will be trained. The programme will be conducted at four universities in Ivory Coast, Niger, Senegal and Togo, with one semester each during the Master’s degree taking place as a foreign and practical semester in Germany. In the first round there were 842 applications for 60 places.
Karliczek: West Africa can become the climate-friendly “powerhouse” of the world, May 20, 2021
