London — The British-based company Jearrard Energy Resources Limited (JER) is planning to develop a solar farm in the southern Mozambican province of Inhambane that will use electricity to produce hydrogen for the global market.
Hydrogen is, in theory, the ultimate green energy as burning it creates just heat and water vapour. However, the production of hydrogen is often problematic: currently, 95 per cent of the world's hydrogen is made by burning fossil fuels, releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
In Britain, there are attempts to reduce these emissions by producing "blue' hydrogen using carbon capture. The biggest blue hydrogen scheme is being developed by a company called Cadent, which proposes to crack methane gas to produce hydrogen - with the resulting waste products, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, pumped into disused gas fields in the Irish Sea for storage.
In contrast, the Jearrard Energy Resources project will be almost entirely free of carbon emissions. Its "green' hydrogen will be produced using photovoltaic solar panels to power electrolysers that extract the hydrogen molecules in water, with the only by-product being oxygen, making it a 100 per cent sustainable clean energy source.
In the first half of 2024, the company will begin constructing its 12 Gigawatt solar to green hydrogen facility in Mozambique. In an interview with AIM, it revealed that it has already acquired sufficient land to construct the facility, which, once completed, will produce over 4,000 tonnes of hydrogen per day. This will total 1.5 billion kilogrammes of hydrogen per year which will be pumped through a 125 kilometre long pipeline to a dedicated export terminal.
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JER plans to expand this first facility in Mozambique and will continue to identify new locations in the Southern Africa region, including South Africa.
Marcus Allington, the Chief Executive of Jearrard Energy Resources, told AIM that "Mozambique will be at the forefront of the transition to Net Zero. We are tremendously grateful for the encouragement and support we have received from both the provincial government in Inhambane and the national Government to identify and secure the land and permits for our first facility'.
He added, "We believe that Africa can play a major role in achieving a sustainable future for the planet and generate jobs and wealth for its people doing this. This facility is a milestone step in our plans for Mozambique and Southern Africa'.
According to Allington, "JER has developed its own hybrid model which allows for industrial partners to join it in the development of solar to green hydrogen facilities on a mutually beneficial basis'.
The company stresses that it will further protect the environment by using non-conventional water sources to avoid taking water that local communities, wildlife, livestock and ecosystems need. It promises that "with a strong environmental and social ethos, JER's operations avoid damaging the water table or local ecology'.
