The Coega project is located in Nelson Mandela Bay. The project will not only generate vast amounts of green ammonia for the clean fuel and maritime industry across the Far East and Europe but will also include the largest clusters of PV farms and Wind assets under single ownership in Africa.
The project will be supporting the ‘Just Energy Transition’. The approach aims to ensure that those who are disadvantaged by Climate Change and unemployment are included in the transition to green energy, improving their livelihoods significantly.
Here is how Hive’s Coega project is supporting the ‘Just Energy Transition’.
Climate Change Mitigation
This is a mega-scale green project with low environmental impacts thanks to Coega’s suitable, comprehensive, established and a contiguous infrastructure. The combined effects of the project site offer significant net gains overall – including reducing carbon emissions globally to help reduce the effects of climate change.
Employment
The project will be transformative for the Nelson Mandela Bay area – which has the lowest GDP per person in South Africa. The project will create over 20,000 direct and indirect jobs to reduce the unemployment rate, which is currently over 50% in the Eastern Cape. Subsequently, this will reduce crime and alleviate poverty. There are as many as 40,000 unemployed people in the construction industry sector alone in Gqeberha.
Water Crisis Alleviation
The project will contribute substantially to relieving the city’s recurring water supply crisis by providing a green energy derived baseload of clean water, a plant by product. This will improve water supply by as much as 25%.
Green Industrial Development
Significantly too, the project will supplement the country’s grid infrastructure by adding new transmission lines ahead of schedule. These transmission lines will deliver circa 10,000 MW of Green Energy capacity to unlock large-scale green industrial development in Nelson Mandela Bay that in turn will create more jobs, improve livelihoods and impact society positively.
RED2 Compliance
Additional green power supplied by the project will ensure the regulatory requirements are surpassed for renewably sourced electricity in correlation to the same grid zones (for countries outside the EU the requirement is to be produced within the country’s borders – EU Renewable Energy Directive 2 – September 2022). The project will also support the required 70% greenhouse gas reduction as the plant will be emission-free.
New Industrial Development
The project will be a catalyst for material and equipment suppliers to set up business and manufacturing servicing the green economy in the region, creating long term employment.
As a direct result of this project, large international investors in the renewable energy equipment manufacturing sector (solar panels, wind turbine towers, battery energy storage etc) are actively working to establish their businesses in Nelson Mandela Bay to help meet demand.
Port Growth
The Coega green ammonia project is also a driver for expansion and development of multi-use liquid bulk storage facilities, ammonia/hydrogen bunkering and an export hub at Ngqura Port. This Project alone will generate Storage and Port Services Fees in excess of R6,3 billion over 25 years for Transnet, which has recently been restructured and has a pressing need for new revenue lines such as these which will help significantly to achieve their group turnaround revenue targets.
Green Ammonia: Fuel of the Future
Coega is ideally positioned to provide bunkering for ships to refuel with Green Ammonia – the maritime fuel to replace heavy fuel oils and diesel.
Foreign Direct Investment and Tax Revenues
The full four phases of the project will generate over R300bn of foreign direct investment and direct tax revenues of over R216 billion, stimulating the economy further and positively improving people’s lives.
