Prieska is a ‘blink-and-you’ll-miss-it’ town next to the Orange River at the end of a two-hour drive from Kimberley, the nearest city.

A sign so weathered it’s barely legible greets you on arrival.

The town is dissected by a main road. On one side is the ‘central business district’, with a Spar, Usave and agricultural co-op. On a Sunday afternoon the place is dead quiet, nothing is open but a couple of bottle stores, a few spaza shops, the petrol stations and the lone KFC.

The other side of the road is a hive of activity. Children play football in the dusty street next to a spaza shop, stopping occasionally to get a cold drink or run home with a loaf of bread. The houses are all open and people sit in their small yards enjoying the last of the sunlight, ​​or finish the weekend washing.

In the early hours of Monday morning workers climb into a truck. They’re going to a nearby farm where they have seasonal work. Farming is the main source of employment for people in this community. Giant grain silos close to the non-operational railway line are testament to this.

A new low-cost housing development also provides some jobs, but unemployment is a problem here, especially among young people.

Big Plans for the future

Prieska is situated in a part of the arid, sparsely populated Northern Cape that has ‘almost unrivalled wind and solar resources, vast expanses, access to a steady supply of water, and proximity to major highways and rail routes’, says Martin Walzer, a director of the ambitious Prieska Power Reserve project.

The whole of the Northern Cape holds enormous untapped potential as a hub for clean energy and industry. ‘The ingredients are all there for the Northern Cape to drive an industrial renaissance in South Africa,’ says Walzer.

The Prieska Power Reserve project, which won’t be connected to Eskom’s congested and unreliable electricity grid, is expected to start producing green hydrogen and ammonia in 2028.

It will use wind and solar energy to split water sourced from the Orange River into its individual components – hydrogen and oxygen. That ‘green’ hydrogen can then be used as a replacement for fossil fuels in heavy industrial processes, and to make ammonia for the mining and agricultural sectors.

In phase one, the precinct is expected to produce 80,000 tonnes of ammonia a year – enough to replace well over 10% of South Africa’s imports of the critical chemical.

If the Northern Cape realises its hydrogen potential, it could use those molecules to beneficiate local minerals such as iron and manganese, and to manufacture low-carbon steel, among other things. Several new renewable-powered industrial hubs could be established across the province, Walzer suggests.

Consuming green energy in the same province it’s made in is a way to overcome the country’s electrical grid capacity challenges, he adds.

However, to make the most of this opportunity, the Northern Cape’s – and the country’s – beleaguered rail network will have to be improved.

Regulators could also smooth the way, as they have done in the US, Europe, China and other markets.

‘South Africa has a unique opportunity, with its natural endowments and space. But you have to put policy in place to encourage it.’

In the meantime, the small town of Prieska is set for a major transformation.

The power reserve project will provide some 3,500 jobs during the construction phase and around 425 permanent positions after it’s commissioned.

Together with the downstream opportunities linked to hydrogen and ammonia, and the operationalisation of a copper and zinc mine and other renewable energy projects in the area, ‘we’ll reshape Prieska,’ Walzer says, adding that investments will be needed in schools, other infrastructure, and community development initiatives.

We need to accelerate investments in grid infrastructure to truly unlock the Northern Cape’s unmatched wind and solar potential, says Nikita Nicholson, general manager for assessment management at renewable energy developer Mulilo. Photo: Barry Christianson

Nikita Nicholson, general manager for asset management at renewable energy developer Mulilo, says the nascent clean energy boom is already creating a significant number of jobs in the Northern Cape, but adds that grid constraints will curb the industry’s growth in the years ahead, at least temporarily.

Until now, Mulilo has focused entirely on the wind and solar-rich province, with four operational solar projects near Prieska and two wind farms close to De Aar.

But the company sells electricity into the national grid, which is fast running out of capacity for new projects in the sunny and windy Northern Cape.

As a result, Mulilo will look for fresh opportunities in other parts of South Africa while Eskom prepares to bolster the Northern Cape’s transmission links to the rest of the country.

It’s also considering ways to mitigate the province’s grid challenges, such as directly supplying mines and industrial projects.

The bottom line, though, is that ‘we need to accelerate investments in grid infrastructure’ to truly unlock the Northern Cape’s unmatched wind and solar potential.

Nicholson says renewable energy developers including Mulilo are already playing an important role in plugging funding gaps for education and other critical services.

Like its peers, Mulilo’s projects are part owned by the communities they’re located in, via trusts. Local representatives have seats on those trusts, meaning they have a say on how dividends are spent in the community.

The trusts tied to Mulilo’s solar farms in Prieska are largely focused on education initiatives, including bursaries, investments in early childhood development centres, maths tutoring services, and enterprise development programmes.

The overarching goal, Nicholson says, is to ensure that the Northern Cape can retain its graduates as new economic hubs emerge in the expansive province.

For now, the renewable energy projects haven’t translated into many extra jobs for the community of Prieska because they are mostly for maintenance and cleaning, says Robbie Kasper, 62, a contractor working on the housing project who has lived in Prieska his whole life.

Five school buses donated to the community by Mulilo have made a big difference to the children in the area, says Kasper.

The closure of the mine at Copperton 18 years ago hit the community hard, says Kasper. But it is set to reopen soon and will provide jobs.

Klaas Hoorn, a security guard who has also lived in Prieska his whole life, says the town has grown in the past 12 years and has a few more shops now.

He says the Mulilo Trust has rehabilitated schools and old age homes, but the local hospital needs improvement as serious cases need to go to Kimberley or Bloemfontein for treatment.

Klaas also wants the railway to resume operation.

Alastair Louw is a construction manager of a housing project in Prieska. Photo: Paul Botes

Alastair Louw, the construction manager of the housing project, sees great potential for Prieska, especially when more solar and wind projects come on board and when the mine reopens.

If constraints on the clean energy industry are addressed, towns like Prieska could be see significant long-term boosts, says Nicholson.