According to a senior official speaking at the present Africa Energy Indaba 2023 meeting, Namibia anticipates concluding the implementation agreement and starting the feasibility studies for its $10 billion green hydrogen project in the second quarter of 2023.
A major chemical business, whose identity will not be disclosed, and the South Korean hydrogen producer Approtium signed two memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with the project’s promoter, Hyphen Hydrogen Energy, last month for a combined annual offtake of 750,000 million tonnes of green ammonia.
When fully developed, the project will use 3GW of electrolyser capacity and 5–6 GW of renewable energy to generate 300,000 metric tonnes of green hydrogen yearly.
Six green hydrogen projects are currently under way in Namibia, according to Frans Kalenga, Senior Manager, Sustainable Energies, NAMCOR. Stakeholder consultations to draft a Synthetic Fuels Act have already started, according to Kalenga, and the specifics should be completed by the second quarter of this year.
With funding received from the European Investment Bank at COP27, HDF is constructing an 85 megawatt (MW) solar power plant and a green hydrogen production unit at Swakopmund along the Namibian coast.
Namibia’s draft local content policy is complete, according to Carlo McLeod, Deputy Director, Compliance, Regulations and Economics, Ministry of Mines and Energy. The Environmental Investment Fund’s CEO, Benedict Libanda, stated that local businesses will be eligible for 30% of the purchase.