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Cape Town - Energy companies should start moving away from electrifying rural areas and instead start investing in electrifying informal settlements with fuel cell technology.
This is according to Serame Moeketsi from the Department of Energy. He was speaking at the first annual HySA (Hydrogen SA) meeting held in Cape Town.
”If investors want to recoup their money and be sustainable they should focus on informal settlements, especially in urban areas," he said, "because here you have huge numbers of people, and you will be able to sell fuel cell technology at a good price that people can afford."
The problem in rural areas is that it is not so densely populated and houses are far from each other. "In South Africa we currently have 300 million households and 1.2 million of the people stay in informal settlements."
According to Dr Phil Mjwara, the director-general of the Department of Science and Technology, his department also welcomed the pace of development of HFCT since the launch of HySA in 2008. He said the development of the 2.5 kW power-generator unit at UWC had been successful. The fuel cell generator provides power for lights at the Cape Flats Nature Reserve.
“Another fuel cell project had seen HFCT successfully used as standby power at three schools in Cofimvaba, in the rural Eastern Cape, and having a profound effect on learning and the lives of ordinary people.
"HySA Catalysis has a commercially ready catalyst which is being currently prepared for the first customers in the telecommunications industry. HySA Infrastructure is looking into infrastructure requirements for the successful deployment of HFCT.
"In the next two or three years HySA technology would also be linked to other government initiatives, like the agri-parks initiative led by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR), special economic zones led by the Department of Trade and Industry, and other DST-funded initiatives in identified priority districts,” he said.
