Department of Electricity and Energy (DEE) Minister, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, will host the upcoming Africa Green Hydrogen Summit (AGHS) 2026, in Cape Town, next week.
The summit will be held under the theme: “Moving Africa’s Green Hydrogen Sector from PowerPoint to Gigawatts”.
“Following the successful South Africa Green Hydrogen Summits in 2022 and 2023, the platform evolved into the Africa Green Hydrogen Summit in 2025 and has become Africa's leading convening platform for green hydrogen and Power-to-X [end product] development.
“The summit will convene African governments, international investors, civil society, academia and technology experts to explore the continent's potential as a global leader in green hydrogen.
“AGHS 2026 will focus on demonstrating tangible progress in project implementation, financing, infrastructure development and industrialisation across the African continent,” the DEE said.
The department noted that South Africa itself has green hydrogen development ambitions as demonstrated in “various national policy instruments including the Hydrogen Society Roadmap, the Green Hydrogen Commercialisation Strategy and the Just Energy Transition framework”.
“Green Hydrogen offers South Africa and Africa an opportunity to play a leading role in the global green hydrogen market, due to its world-class renewable energy resources, critical mineral endowments and industrial demand.
“This summit provides a platform to mobilise foreign and domestic investment; leverage export opportunities for low-carbon energy, drive green industrialisation, job creation and regional infrastructure development,” the department said.
Key focus areas for this year’s summit include:
- Projects moving towards implementation: Showcasing a first wave of South African and African green hydrogen and Power-to-X projects progressing from project development towards investment, construction and commercial deployment.
- Mobilising finance: New project-preparation, blended-finance and development-finance initiatives will be highlighted, aimed at improving project bankability, reducing investment risk and mobilising domestic and international capital.
- Creating markets and demand: Demonstrating emerging commercial applications and demand for green hydrogen and its derivatives, including their role in the decarbonisation of transport, industry and other hard-to-abate sectors.
- Industrialisation and technology: Government, industry and development partners will highlight initiatives aimed at strengthening local manufacturing, technology development, skills and the development of competitive African green hydrogen value chains.
- Building an investable project pipeline: AGHS 2026 will showcase efforts to provide investors and financiers with greater visibility of the emerging pipeline of green hydrogen and Power-to-X opportunities in South Africa.
- African cooperation: The summit will strengthen cooperation between African governments, including members of the Africa Green Hydrogen Alliance, around investment, infrastructure, market development, certification, technology and regional value chains.
“The programme will also focus on the interdependent enablers required to take projects to scale, including finance, supply, demand, shared infrastructure, technology and innovation, policy and regulation, and community participation,” the DEE said. – SAnews.gov.za
