With more and more countries transitioning away from fossil fuel sources such as coal, oil and gas, it comes as no surprise that many are now vying for the biggest future project focused on clean energy.
Namibia, a country in Southern Africa that borders the Atlantic Ocean, is one such country, having joined the contest with an impressive £7.2 billion project to produce green hydrogen from renewable sources, including solar and wind.
The project is set to cover 1,544 square miles in the 10,000-square-mile Tsau Khaeb National Park, a diamond mining area in the southwest of the country in the Namib Desert.
It is also expected to have a capacity of between 300,000 and 350,000 tonnes of green hydrogen annually when fully developed, replacing five to six million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.
Green hydrogen is a clean energy source that is produced by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity from renewable sources – a process called electrolysis. It produces pure hydrogen, with no harmful by-products.
There are several major benefits to green hydrogen. Firstly, it can replace fossil-based hydrogen in transportation and industrial processes, helping to reduce emissions and fight climate change. It can also be stored in compressed tanks for long periods of time, which can help balance supply and demand in the energy grid.
It can also be used to create new industrial products such as green fertilisers and steel.
However, green hydrogen is currently expensive to produce and only makes up a small percentage of the overall hydrogen supply. Nevertheless, governments and industries are recognising the potential of the energy source and are providing policy support to drive its transition.
For example, the US Inflation Reduction Act 2022 includes a Clean Hydrogen Production Tax Credit. Production costs are expected to decrease by around 50 percent by 2030, according to PwC.
The Namibia Green Hydrogen Project is part of the country’s strategy to become a green hydrogen superpower and a leader in the global energy transition.
The project, whose feasibility and implementation agreement was signed last year, is led by Hyphen Energy and has received support from the Namibian government, which granted the right to operate it for 40 years.
Its initial phase is expected to start production before 2026.
The project is expected to create around 15,000 during the construction phase and 3,000 permanent jobs.
Namibia is uniquely placed to become one of the world’s largest producers of green hydrogen, thanks to it being one of the most resource-rich locations in the world for the combined use of wind and solar energy. It has significant land availability, as well as the geographical proximity of renewable resources to the coast.
At full scale and with the commissioning of further projects, the surplus electricity generated by the hydrogen industry can be used to “decarbonise the entire Namibian power grid, drive Namibia’s energy independence and make the country a new exporter of low-carbon energy,” Enertrag reported.
