Uchendu Eugene Chigbu
Green hydrogen production is now a big issue in Africa. Several countries are investing much time and effort to get it underway. Our politicians have termed it the “new gold” that would lift our citizens out of poverty.
Their use of this buzz phrase has always left me wondering what happened to the actual gold, which has failed to lift us out of poverty.
Come to think of it. Hashish or cannabis and cocaine are natural natives of Afghanistan and Colombia. Yet, drug barons continue to get wealthy perpetually (when alive and not in jail) while these countries have been condemned to crises and poverty. So, it is not always the case that ‘new golds’ make their owners wealthy.
Although hydrogen (a gas derivable from other natural gas, fossil fuels, minerals, and water) is qualified with colours (such as black, pink, turquoise, yellow, blue, white, and brown) in the scientific community, it is neither black nor blue nor brown nor green nor any other colours associated with it. The different processes of producing hydrogen make us associate it with colours. It is only associated with green (as in green hydrogen) when extracted using a method that does not produce harmful gases (like greenhouse gases). In this regard, the green is associated with it to emphasise that GHP is an environmentally friendly process (production) that makes an environmentally friendly hydrogen (product).
I do not want to be a killjoy in the green hydrogen discourse in Africa. By discussing the land use implications of the GHP in this article, I only want to call the attention of our governments and citizens to the possibilities of reducing any potential pressures it may put on natural resources (like land and water use). Despite its abundant resources, Africa continues to face energy-related challenges. Africa has the lowest electricity access rate in the world (over 40%). So, it is sensible that African governments consider GHP as a means of solving our energy problems.
There are two reasons why Africa has a high potential for GHP. First, Africa has abundant natural resources with renewable potential. Several African countries have excellent solar resources, especially around the northern and southern regions. Africa also has the highest untapped hydropower capacity potential globally. Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have the most significant hydropower potentials, with the continent’s two largest rivers (the Nile and the Congo) flowing between their borders.
Furthermore, the continent has only utilised about 11% of its renewable energy resource capacity. Regarding the availability of extensive non-arable land and the proximity to ports, the potentials are bountiful in the northern and southern African regions (Morocco, Algeria, Namibia, South Africa, Angola, and Botswana).
Secondly, Africa is still in the infancy stage of technological development, making innovative technologies more easily adaptable across the sectors in its countries. This will help with the ease of installation and flexibility of operating GHP plants.
These potentials have been well-written in print and internet media and popularly aired in broadcast media. My concern is that nothing is being said or written about the land issues and consequences that may arise from operationalising GHP in Africa. I want to state that GHP will have enormous land use (including water, land and forest) implications:
• It requires enormous land resources for the plants’ construction (including solar and wind energy) and operations.
• GHP requires ample freshwater resources for electrolysis, construction and maintenance of solar and wind energy plants. This may exacerbate the scarcity of freshwater in many parts of Africa.
• African governments have not been engaging with communities concerning GHP. Without community participation, communities may lose their land to GHP plants.
• It requires storage, dispensing, transportation, and delivery infrastructure. This would demand increased land use and water use wherever GHP plants are built.
• If not well planned and managed, using the scarce fresh water in electrolysis can further impoverish communities and exacerbate conflicts in Africa’s fragile states.
I have a friend who lives in Namibia’s optimistic corridors of the Green Hydrogen. He would sarcastically state that it would be produced in the desert each time we discussed this matter (and I tried to bring up these land use implications). The desert is a valuable piece of land essential in many countries. Portions of Namibia’s desert are already being used for tourism (one of the most significant economic sectors in the country). The “Great Green Wall”, a Pan-African restoration initiative, has helped increase the amount of arable land in the Sahara. Israel turned the Negev Desert into agricultural power by creating desert farms to solve its food security challenges. The desert can be used for many other initiatives, including the GHP, forestry, agriculture and leisure (to mention a few).
As European powers (especially the German government) continue to engage with African countries in their rush to tap green hydrogen from Africa, I hope it will not be the case of drug barons and the governments of Afghanistan and Colombia.
To avoid causing unnecessary land problems, our governments must adopt appropriate planning to ensure that the socio-economic and environmental consequences of GHP do not offset or outweigh its benefits. This means investing in social, economic and environmental assessments. A thorough cost-benefit analysis of several GHP pathways must be conducted to ensure that the initiative, if it must happen, benefits everyone and does not destroy other sectors of our economy.
*Uchendu Eugene Chigbu is an associate professor (Land Administration) in the Department of Land and Spatial Sciences at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST). The views expressed in this article are entirely his, and not that of NUST.