THE final stage of development for Hive Hydrogen South Africa’s green ammonia project at Coega commenced on Monday, 7 July, with the distribution of Requests for Proposals to 15 shortlisted Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) companies, selected from 48 responses following a Request for Information process earlier this year.
This important step comes less than a month after the Africa Green Hydrogen Summit, where the project’s ‘Lighthouse’ status was confirmed by South Africa’s Minister of Electricity and Energy, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.
A Development Funding Agreement of R360 million (US$20 million) for Hive Hydrogen to take the Coega Green Ammonia project to Final Investment Decision (FID) was also announced.
The chairman of Hive Hydrogen, Thulani Gcabashe said: “The release of these substantial Requests for Proposals to EPCs marks the culmination of four years of intense development work to get us to this major milestone for the project. A team of over 120 people, including a vast array of engineers, environmental specialists, ESG consultants, legal advisors, financial advisors, project managers, land surveyors, geologists, and many others, have worked tirelessly to make this a reality.”
The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition’s acting deputy director-general of investment and spatial industrial development, Yunus Hoosen said: “We are delighted to see so much International Interest in the project with major EPCs from the Far East, Europe and the UK engaging and working alongside the South African construction industry to make South Africa’s ‘Lighthouse’ green hydrogen project a reality.”
Coega green ammonia project
Hive Hydrogen South Africa (HHSA) has been developing the Coega Green Ammonia Project since 2020, with the capacity to produce and export over one million tons per annum to the Far East and Europe from its Green Ammonia Production Facility in the Coega Special Economic Zone in the Eastern Cape. Due to commence production in 2029/2030, the company aims to supply green ammonia at a leading international price point that will also outcompete blue ammonia pricing.
The request for EPC proposals to complete the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) and to construct the ammonia production plant and renewable energy generation plants represents the final stage of development.
Last month, in June, the project reached another major milestone with the completion of its 1,430 MW solar PV cluster development phase, which will supply 40% of the plant’s power requirements.
The company says the project has an impressive suite of strategic partners aiming to enter the project as equity stakeholders before or at FID in the third quarter of 2026. It says these include blue-chip International off-takers, original equipment manufacturers, shipping companies, renewable energy plant operators, ammonia production plant operators and storage operators.
The more than R100 billion (US$5.8 billion) project includes:
- Green ammonia production plant – 1,000,000+ tons per annum
- Seawater abstraction, desalination and demineralisation plants
- Ammonia storage – 70,000 tons with 2 x 7 km pipeline
- 1,430 MW solar PV cluster comprising nine solar farms
- 1,879 MW wind power in two clusters comprising five wind farms
Hive Hydrogen South Africa is backed by Hive Energy and Built Africa and has been working on establishing a large-scale green hydrogen and green ammonia plant in South Africa powered by renewable energy.
Hive Energy is headquartered in Hampshire, United Kingdom, with offices in 22 countries, and has developed more than 3,000 MW of grid-connected solar PV plants on over 50 solar sites and over 40 industrial and commercial solar rooftop sites. Hive Energy also has large-scale Green Hydrogen development projects in Spain, Chile and Turkey.
The Built Africa Group, located in Waterfall Point Office Park in Midrand, was founded in 2008 by Thulani Gcabashe to develop and invest in renewable energy projects.
