Hive Energy’s Green Ammonia project integral to South Africa and Japan’s joint decarbonisation plans

Hive Energy’s Green Ammonia project integral to South Africa and Japan’s joint decarbonisation plans

Romsey, UK. 10.10.2023: Japan commits to helping facilitate international development funding, research and private sector participation to achieve a sustainable and affordable hydrogen and ammonia supply chain in South Africa.

A historic Memorandum of Cooperation between Japan and South Africa has been signed, recognising that South Africa has the capacity and ability to be an internationally competitive producer of hydrogen and green ammonia.

All the attendees gathered at South Africa’s Historical Memorandum of Cooperation with Japan. The event was celebrated in Tokyo at a Joint Workshop on Large Scale Hydrogen Projects. Colin Loubser, General Manager (Front row, grey suit and red tie) of Hive Hydrogen presented the Coega Green Ammonia Project.
South Africa’s Historical Memorandum of Cooperation with Japan was celebrated in Tokyo at a Joint Workshop on Large Scale Hydrogen Projects. Colin Loubser, General Manager (Front row, grey suit and red tie) of Hive Hydrogen presented the Coega Green Ammonia Project.

Hive Energy UK is playing the leading development role in Phase 1 of South Africa’s $5,8bn Green Ammonia project in Coega, Nelson Mandela Bay, to be commissioned in 2028. The plant will supply Japan, Korea, and Europe with over 900,000 tons a year, in the first of four phases, and Hive is confident that its Green Ammonia pricing for pre-2030 supply will be one of lowest globally. The first Japanese Investors have now started their due diligence to acquire a substantial stake in Hive’s Coega Green Ammonia Project and secure an offtake supply.

The Hive giga-scale project, with 1,200MW of Electrolysers to extract hydrogen from water, will benefit South Africa in many ways including creating over 20,000 jobs in an area with large unemployment and attracting other new industrial investors. Critically, in addition to its own 3,6GW of solar and wind plants, it will enable up to 9GW of other Independent Power Producer renewable energy projects to access the grid, helping to alleviate load shedding while decarbonising the grid, which is currently dominated by coal power generation. Most importantly, the Hive project is fully aligned with the Just Energy Transition that the country is committed to.

Giles Redpath, Hive Energy CEO, commented: “Hive has been working on renewable developments in Southern Africa since 2015 and on Green Hydrogen since 2018. It is encouraging to see how the South African Government has embraced the new green hydrogen industry. The opportunities this creates will enable our Coega green ammonia project to become a world-leading hub. When the production plant is commissioned in 2028, Green ammonia will be shipped from Nelson Mandela Bay to the Far East, and across the world. Our project will play a positive role in the partnership between South Africa and Japan as a source of renewable fuel supporting Japan’s world leading decarbonisation plans to power hard-to-abate industries, including supplying Green Ammonia for coal substitution in power stations and for maritime fuel to replace heavy fuel oil and diesel.”

Hive is developing eight green hydrogen/ammonia projects globally. Once complete, the Hive projects will have the capacity to produce some 8,500,000 tons of hydrogen/ammonia each year to support the global drive to net-zero emissions by 2050.