FROM GREEN HYDROGEN POTENTIAL TO INDUSTRIAL REALITY: THE EASTERN CAPE’S NEXT MOVE

That is why the Eastern Cape’s green hydrogen opportunity matters so deeply. The province has long been described as a province of potential. In sustainable energy, that description is beginning to feel inadequate. The province is no longer merely waiting for the future to arrive; it is actively building some of the platforms through which that future can be industrialised.

That was my overwhelming reflection after the recent African Green Hydrogen Summit 2026, where the Eastern Cape’s green hydrogen proposition was visible through two catalytic projects: the Green Hydrogen Solutions Project at the East London Industrial Development Zone (ELIDZ) and the Hive Green Ammonia Project at the Coega SEZ.

These two strategic investments from the Eastern Cape were announced as part of the six first-wave projects included in South Africa’s inaugural Green Hydrogen Deal Book. For a province that is often among the first to move in emerging sectors, this recognition matters. It confirms that the Eastern Cape is not only participating in the national green hydrogen conversation; it is helping to define the project pipeline through which South Africa’s next industrial frontier will be tested. As someone involved in industrial project development, I know that visibility alone does not make a project viable. What matters is whether that visibility translates into investment decisions and ultimately, into implementation on the ground.

If the Eastern Cape is to remain ahead of the curve, we must now ask a harder and more urgent question: How do we protect this first-mover advantage and become one of the first provinces to move a green hydrogen project from promise to operation?

The answer begins with understanding that these two provincial projects are not stand-alone developments; they are anchor platforms for a future green hydrogen sector. The Green Hydrogen Solutions Project at the ELIDZ and the Hive Green Ammonia Project at Coega should be regarded as early nodes in a wider provincial value chain that connects renewable energy generation, grid and transmission access, water and desalination, electrolysers, storage, transport, port handling, certification, engineering, construction, operations, maintenance, digital monitoring, research, skills and downstream products such as green ammonia, fertiliser, marine fuel and sustainable aviation fuel. If we treat them only as individual investments, we will understate their significance. If we treat them as the foundations of a sector, we begin to see the system that must be planned, financed, enabled and deliberately grown. Too often, discussions about green hydrogen focus only on production. In reality, the greatest economic benefit comes from the industries, services and supplies that develop around a project over time.

After all, the Eastern Cape has an extraordinary competitive advantage in green hydrogen, but advantage only becomes meaningful when it is translated into delivery. The province has strong wind and solar resources, two strategic ports, established industrial platforms in the Coega SEZ and the East London IDZ, an export-oriented manufacturing base, skills and innovation assets, and a growing project pipeline that includes both the Green Hydrogen Solutions Project and the Hive Green Ammonia Project. The challenge is no longer proving that the Eastern Cape has the right ingredients. The challenge is ensuring that these advantages work together in a coordinated and focused way. The opportunity now is to align these assets with purpose: connecting energy resources to industrial land, ports to future export markets, universities and TVET colleges to new skills demand, and public institutions to investors that can build projects, grow industries, create jobs and deepen the economic impact of investment in our province.

The Green Hydrogen Solutions Project at the ELIDZ alone could unlock approximately R1,3 billion private-sector investment into the Buffalo City economy and create meaningful employment in the province. These are not abstract figures. They represent productive capital, industrial capability, new technical work and the possibility of building value chains around an industry that South Africa has identified as central to its future industrial development. They also represent a chance to place a new, lower-carbon commodity into the Eastern Cape’s export basket and position the province in markets where the carbon intensity of production will increasingly shape competitiveness. In practical terms, this means opportunities for local contractors, engineers, technicians, graduates and small businesses to participate in a growing industrial ecosystem.
The Green Hydrogen Solutions Project has already moved beyond aspiration. Approved by the ELIDZ Board in 2024, the project has advanced into green hydrogen production development, with the front-end engineering study commissioned and the Environmental Impact Assessment completed. The remaining milestones are now clear: funding closure, firm supply and offtake arrangements, and the decisions that will move the project closer to construction and operation.

That progress must be acknowledged. Large industrial projects do not move from announcement to construction by enthusiasm alone. They require technical studies, environmental permissions, land solutions, energy supply arrangements, water planning, customer commitments, financial structuring and credible institutional support. GHS has done important work to move through these early stages. Anyone who has worked on large industrial projects understands that this is often the stage where momentum is either gained or lost. Progress at this stage matters.

This is why the message from the Minister of Electricity and Energy, Honourable Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, at the Summit was so important. His challenge was clear: South Africa’s green hydrogen sector must move from ambition to implementation, from PowerPoint to gigawatts. In practical terms, first-wave projects such as Green Hydrogen Solutions must now demonstrate progress on the conditions that unlock investment: funding closure, enabling infrastructure, permitting, credible customers, offtake agreements and construction readiness. For the ELIDZ, the immediate task is therefore not simply to celebrate Green Hydrogen Solutions’ inclusion in the national investment deal book, but to help convert that recognition into execution by supporting the investor to secure funding closure, obtain the major hazard installation permit, finalise bankable offtake arrangements and move decisively towards construction and operation.

This is where a provincial green hydrogen enabling delivery network becomes essential. At an executive level, investment facilitation must be understood as more than promotion; it is the practical discipline of converting investment interest into bankable decisions and bankable decisions into economic impact. No single institution can develop a green hydrogen sector on its own. Success will depend on how effectively government, industry, financiers, ports, education institutions and communities can work together. That requires a delivery network able to remove friction from the investor journey by aligning land, port access, power, water, permitting, funding, incentives, customers, skills, localisation and community participation around a clear path to implementation, supported by clear responsibilities, responsive institutions and accountability for progress.

The Eastern Cape Green Hydrogen Strategy already gives us the framework. Its five priorities, namely infrastructure and logistics, an enabling environment, investment and finance, skills and knowledge, and localisation and innovation, are precisely the areas that must now be converted into practical action around the first-wave projects. This means infrastructure planning that follows project timelines; predictable approvals; support for climate and development finance; coordinated skills programmes; and intentional localisation so that local firms, SMMEs and workers participate in the value chain from the beginning.

For the ELIDZ, this also means using existing and future assets more strategically. The Zone offers serviced industrial land, investment facilitation, proximity to the Port of East London, an emerging energy special purpose vehicle, innovation platforms through the Science and Technology Park, a platform for green energy, digital capability, advanced manufacturing, enterprise development and skills. These are not separate initiatives. They are pieces of one industrial proposition.

If we get this right, the benefits will extend beyond one investor. A green hydrogen sector can create demand for engineering, fabrication, electrical installation, water treatment, specialist logistics, safety systems, maintenance, monitoring technologies, professional services, research, incubation and component manufacture. It can help existing industries decarbonise and make the Eastern Cape more attractive to investors whose customers and financiers increasingly demand lower-carbon production. What encouraged me most at the Summit was the growing sense that the conversation has shifted. The focus is increasingly on implementation, timelines and delivery rather than potential alone.

The Summit therefore left me both proud and restless. Proud because the Eastern Cape is not watching the green hydrogen economy from the sidelines. Restless because early movement only creates advantage if it is followed by disciplined execution. Many places can announce projects. Fewer can operationalise them.
Our challenge now is to become one of those places. We must move from strategy to implementation, from deal-book recognition to construction, from investment potential to industrial impact. That is how the Eastern Cape protects its advantage. That is how we turn sustainable energy into a strategic sector.

That is how green hydrogen becomes more than a promise for the future; it becomes the foundation of a new industrial economy that can touch ordinary households and reshape the destiny of the province. In many ways, the decisions taken over the next few years will determine whether the Eastern Cape has become a producer, exporter and beneficiary of the green hydrogen economy or simply an observer of its growth elsewhere.

For me, success will not be measured by investment announcements alone. It will be measured by the factories that are built, the businesses that emerge, the skills that are developed, and the opportunities created for people across the province. Ultimately, the value of green hydrogen will lie not only in what it produces, but in the economic impact it leaves behind.

If we act with urgency, discipline and shared purpose, this sector can become for the Eastern Cape what the automotive sector has been for generations: a platform for skills, enterprises, technical work, entrepreneurship and jobs in ordinary families. That is the opportunity we must now realise.

For media enquiries:
Mr Siphosethu Tikana
Acting Manager: Marketing & Corporate Communications
Email: siphosethuti@elidz.co.za
Tel: 064 900 8392 / 076 800 5317