- Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) has announced signing two partnerships in South Africa and Namibia.
- FFI wants to invest in the emerging green hydrogen sector and its by-products, particularly green ammonia.
Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) continues its talks in southern Africa after Kenya and Egypt. African Rainbow Energy and Power (AREP), a company owned by entrepreneur Patrice Motsepe that trades in gold, platinum, iron, copper, and coal and is increasingly purchasing shares in renewable energy projects, and Fortescue Metals’ subsidiary in South Africa has just signed a “non-binding agreement.”
FFI hopes to investigate investment prospects in South Africa’s green hydrogen industry through the partnership with Arep.
This cooperation was launched as foreign investors’ interest in the green hydrogen sector and its products in South Africa grew. This is the case with the Saudi energy firm Acwa Power, which plans to invest $10 billion over the following years in collaboration with the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) of South Africa.
Hive Energy’s subsidiary, Hive Hydrogen, has started discussions with the Eastern Cape government about investing $6 billion in green hydrogen in Nelson Mandela Bay, an urban area on the banks of Algoa Bay. FFI and Arep want to take a position in this emerging sector, which also interests Sasol, the world’s largest chemical company based in South Africa.
Fortescue has also made the decision to open a business in Namibia. The Australian company has a memorandum of understanding with Enersense Energy Namibia (EEN) in this southern African nation to investigate the prospect of working together on the construction of Daures Green Hydrogen Village in the Erongo region. A 500 kW electrolyser will be used to transform the project’s first phase’s 1 MW of installed renewable energy capacity into hydrogen.