A new partnership between an energy company in Africa and two German engineering firms could significantly broaden access to green energy in Europe at a time when climate change-driven disasters have burdened countries across the world.
Sonangol, Angola’s state-owned energy company, announced last June that it had inked an agreement with two German companies, Conjuncta and Gauff Engineering, to build a green hydrogen plant along the country’s Atlantic coast. The plant is projected to be operational by 2024, making Angola the first African country to export hydrogen.
Once online, the factory will annually produce some 280,000 tons of green ammonia, a liquid substance that allows for the transport of green energy sources such as hydrogen over long distances, including the nearly 10,000-kilometer voyage from Angola to Germany.
This revolutionary transportation technology could expand access to green energy sources in European markets, and, according to industry leaders, ultimately help precipitate a wholesale transition from polluted fossil fuels to emission-free energy sources.
This boost in the availability of green energy sources could be coming at precisely the right moment. Over the last year, once rare climatic events — driven by the planet’s warming — have taken lives and caused untold damage in regions across the globe, from North Africa to the Hawaiian Islands.
Earlier this month, unprecedented flooding claimed the lives of more than 5,000 people in Libya. In August, a ferocious wildfire, driven by the winds of a tropical storm, tore through the historic town of Lahaina on the island of Maui, claiming the lives of more than 60 people and spotlighting the way climate change was creating anomalous conditions in regions around the world.
Green energy produced by companies like Sonangol could help facilitate an efficient transition away from fossil fuels contributing to climate change.
One of Africa’s largest companies, Sonangol was tasked with stewardship of Angola’s vast petroleum reserves from 1975, following the nation’s independence from Portugal, until a restructuring in 2019. The company remains responsible for prospecting, research, development, production, transport, commercialization, refining, and transformation of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons in Angola. Sonangol employs some 13,000 employees and operates overseas facilities in Congo, Singapore, Hong Kong, London, and Houston.
A member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Angola is estimated to produce more than 1 million barrels of oil every day. Still, the central African nation of more than 30 million inhabitants is staking out new ground as a leader in the global clean energy market.
Sonangol’s facility is under construction in Barra do Dande, a city 30 kilometers north of the capital Luanda, where Angola has invested in the construction of a deep-water port and hydroelectric facility.
