Germany Looks for New Energy Sources in Africa

To save German industry, which is in a deep crisis after the political decision to abandon Russian natural gas and is exacerbated by the closure – against all common sense – of nuclear power plants, the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz must think fast, work really creatively, with fire, without fear of fierce competition with China, and literally “scour the world” for suppliers of liquefied natural gas and other energy sources. German industrial production contracted by 1.6% in real terms in December 2023 (month-on-month), while falling by as much as 3% compared to the corresponding period in 2022.

After decades of fruitful cooperation with Russia’s Gazprom, Germany is now looking toward Africa. On Wednesday, February 7, a delegation from Germany led by Economy Minister Robert Habeck arrived in Algeria to discuss cooperation with the North African country in the field of alternative energy. Above all, the Germans would like to kick-start joint work on the production of so-called green hydrogen. A memorandum of understanding was signed back in December 2022, but little or nothing has been done since then. A huge, apparently stalled project was to start producing green hydrogen in Algeria by electrolyzing water. In the process, renewable energy was envisioned to be harnessed from the country’s significant solar and wind energy potential.

Many experts have criticized green hydrogen projects. It consumes huge amounts of water, a resource that is in short supply everywhere, and in Africa the situation is truly dramatic. The alternative could be “blue” hydrogen produced from natural gas, but the politics of fossil fuel divestment prevents the benefits of this innovative technology from being openly recognized.

The second phase of the German project involves the construction of a “pipeline,” or rather an underwater “hydrogen pipeline” under the Mediterranean Sea between Africa and Europe. Germany has already promised Algeria the prestigious status of one of the “most important suppliers of green hydrogen to the Old World” in the indefinite future. In parallel, the Germans have already solved everything and assigned Italy the role of a “hub” for the distribution of environment-friendly fuel to other EU countries, which will require exorbitant investments in the construction of a special pipeline network for the transportation of H₂.

A skeptical attitude to German projects prevails among experts. An old saying goes like this: “Let every man praise the bridge he goes over.” And Italy, following simple common sense, contrary to the mildly strange German energy policy, openly declared that “in order to guarantee the security of the Italian energy system and achieve the goals of decarbonization, it is necessary to follow the path of development and strengthening of nuclear energy.” As stated by the Minister of Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, during a recent visit to the Research Center of the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), the great efforts of scientists and technological developers in the field of nuclear energy “respond to the key challenges of our time, in line with the objectives of decarbonization, both from a qualitative standpoint, since nuclear energy brings along zero emissions, and from a quantitative standpoint, ensuring the continuity of energy generation by eliminating the natural variability of energy production through renewable sources, as well as ensuring the security, in which ENEA is at the forefront worldwide.”