GreenCo – Transnet Press Release

Africa GreenCo Group, through its South Africa-based operating company GreenCo Power Services (Pty) Limited (together, GreenCo), is delighted to announce that on 11^th September 2023 it completed the execution of a Memorandum of Co-Operation (MOC) with Transnet SOC Limited (Transnet), a public company owned by the Government of South Africa which is the custodian of South Africa’s rail, port and pipeline infrastructure. This project will be supported by a grant provided by the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) Technical Assistance (PIDG-TA), a key financial organisation funding, inter alia, innovative infrastructure developments in sub-Saharan Africa that is actively involved in green energy transition projects.

Following the execution of the MOC, GreenCo and Transnet will collaborate on a study to establish the techno-commercial viability of Green Hydrogen (GH2) to power freight trains in South Africa, as well as a preliminary project design and parameters of a GH2 Pilot Project.

The MOC reiterates GreenCo’s long-term commitment to integrating Southern Africa’s power markets, mitigating climate change, improving energy security, and enhancing efficiency in the power sector, aligning with global efforts for a sustainable energy transition.

One of the ways GreenCo seeks to achieve this is by introducing Green Hydrogen (GH2) as an alternative fuel for rail transport, particularly for mining sector freight. This aims to reduce the industry’s long-term fuel costs and improve cost predictability by de-risking renewable energy generation and thus reducing its cost of capital, and by leveraging its integration to the Southern Africa Power Pool (SAPP) to optimise the use of electrolysers and reducing the energy costs of hydrogen production.

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