Namibia’s ambitions to become a leader in green hydrogen were first laid out in the Harambee Prosperity Plan II launched by President Geingob on 18 March 2021. The plan highlighted the Southern Corridor Development Initiative (SCDI) within Namibia’s Tsau //Khaeb or Sperrgebiet in the far south of the country. Namibia’s green hydrogen plans are overseen by its Green Hydrogen Council chaired by the Director General of the National Planning Commission and Green Hydrogen Commissioner James Mnyupe. On 4 November 2022 Namibia launched its Green Hydrogen Strategy and went on to establish the Implementation Authority Office (IAO) to streamline and oversee green hydrogen developments.

At COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021 the Namibian Government unveiled Hyphen Hydrogen Energy , a partnership between Germany’s Enertrag and the UK’s Nicholas Holdings, as the winning bidder to its Request for Proposals launched on 3 August 2021. Hyphen plans to build a US$10 billion green hydrogen and green ammonia plant in the Springbok and Dolphin areas of the SCDI using 7GW of solar PV and wind energy and 3GW of electrolyser capacity to produce two million tonnes of green ammonia annually before the end of the decade for export to regional and global markets through the southern port of Lüderitz. On 26 May 2023, the Government of Namibia signed a Feasibility and Investment Agreement (FIA) with Hyphen thus kickstarting a two-year period during which detailed feasibility studies will be carried out. On 21 June 2023 the Government announced it would be taking up a 24% stake in the business. Although at this stage, the Hyphen development is the largest and most ambitious of Namibia’s plans, a number of other initiatives are also underway.

 

 Cleanergy Solutions Namibia is a joint venture between Namibia’s Ohlthaver & List Group and Belgium’s CMB.TECH. Cleanergy is busy constructing what will be Africa’s first green hydrogen plant outside Walvis Bay which is envisaged to start production by the middle of 2025. This is a demonstration plant using solar PV and battery storage to produce 220 tonnes of green hydrogen a year. Cleanergy has stated that it is exploring linking up with Australia’s Fortescue Future Industries for a next-stage green ammonia plant. A brick-laying ceremony was held at the Cleanergy site outside Walvis Bay on 28 September 2023.

The Dâures Green Hydrogen Consortium (DGHC) led by Enersense plans to develop Africa’s first Net Zero Village in the Dâures constituency in the Erongo Region. Phase 1 of the project will see solar and wind energy produce 18 tonnes of green hydrogen and 100 tonnes of green ammonia by Q2 of 2024 which will be followed by Phases 2-4. On 30 January 2023 Dâures and Fortescue Future Industries announced they would collaborate on developing the project. A ground-breaking ceremony for the project was held on 28 March 2023 and President Mbumba inaugurated the Dâures Green Hydrogen Village on 21 October 2024.

 

 Hydrogen de France (HDF) plans to build a green hydrogen power plant as part of its Renewstable® Swakopmund on the outskirts of Swakopmund by 2025. The project envisages an 85MW of solar PV producing green hydrogen from electrolysers using its own water desalination plant. The hydrogen is stored and combined with stabilising battery storage to produce electricity from hydrogen fuel cells to produce stable, firm, dispatchable electricity 24 hours a day.

Namibian-German partnership HyIron aims to reduce iron ore in a rotary kiln using green hydrogen thus producing Direct Reduced Iron with zero carbon emissions. HyIron’s Oshivela project in Arandis aims to use a 20MW of solar PV to produce 15,000 tonnes of Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) making it one of the biggest primary production sites of green iron worldwide. The first phase was inaugurated by President Nandi-Ndaitwah on 11 April 2025. A further 18MW of wind power and 140MW of solar PV will be added to the project at later stages.

Fortescue Future Industries is exploring options in Namibia having lost out to Hyphen in the initial RFP. It has linked up with Dâures and also Cleanergy and has offered Government equal participation in a second major project in the SCDI.

Kaoko Green Energy Solutions has teamed up with Finland’s AW-Energy to use its patented WaveRoller technology wave energy to produce green hydrogen.

There are other players in the green hydrogen space in Namibia such as HopHydro, Zhero, Chiffon Green Hydrogen, and Zero Carbon Namibia but little public information is available about them. More information on renewable energy and green hydrogen developments can be obtained from the Etango newsletter.

On 21 August 2021 the Namibian and German Governments signed an MoU involving the award of €40 million to Namibia from Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to support various green hydrogen initiatives through the Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management (SASSCAL). On 14 December 2022 SASSCAL and the DGHC signed a €12 million funding agreement. At a ceremony at State House on 29 March 2023 SASSCAL re-announced four awards it had announced in August 2022 to the DGHC, Cleanergy, a consortium of Hyphen Technical, Traxtion, CMB.TECH and TransNamib, and CMB.TECH and Namport. Further links between Namibia and Europe include the Port of Lüderitz partnering with the Port of Rotterdam to develop capacity to handle green hydrogen and the Port of Walvis Bay partnering with the Port of Antwerp. At COP27 President Geingob signed an MOU with the European Investment Bank for €500 million of loans for renewable energy projects.