Hydrogen gains momentum

Hyphen Hydrogen Energy is picking up speed in its race to pass the historic milestone of establishing Namibia’s first ever gigawatt-scale renewable energy production complex. The giant generation facility will power Hyphen’s mission to realise the US$10 billion anchor development for the national objective of a new green hydrogen industry in Namibia.

Hydrogen is expected to be the molecule through which energy is transported throughout the world, and green hydrogen, produced from renewable sources, is a global answer to the human contribution to climate change. Namibia is taking the forefront in Africa, as it wants to arrest energy poverty at home, in the region and across the continent.

Hyphen was chosen by government in 2021 as the private developer to bring about 70 megawatt (MW) wind and solar power generation capacity and use it to produce two million tonnes of green ammonia (hydrogen gas combined with nitrogen gas) for export by 2029.

CEO Marco Raffinetti said 24 skilled employees have already been recruited, adding that the company's ultimate goal is a 3 000-strong workforce.

Hyphen's head office on the third floor of the vibrant Lüderitz Waterfront is expanding by 1 000 square metres as soon as the developer can complete construction work, he said.



On the move

Hyphen works closely with the governmental Green Hydrogen Programme and the programme’s head of impact and head of environment, social and governance (ESG), Eline van der Linden, last weekend said “things are on the move".

"It hasn’t stopped. There is progress," she added, explaining that the Hyphen development is only the first for the Southern Corridor Development Initiative, where it has been allocated the Springbok and Dolphin land parcels of 2 000 square kilometres each. Government has plans for a central and eventually a northern development corridor for green hydrogen as well, she noted.

The programme’s newly appointed manager for external affairs and communication Jona Musheko organised a blitz of exposure for Hyphen’s project, bringing executive directors from various ministries - under the leadership of Cabinet secretary Dr George Simataa - to see the sites in the heart of the Tsau //Khaeb National Park and on Angra Point, where the new infrastructure will be built. A delegation of local media was afforded the same opportunity.

In the isolated and restricted-access Namib desert location in the park, a solar park - measuring seven kilometres by seven kilometres - on 5 200 hectares will add to the power production from up to 500 wind turbines, expanding the footprint to 11 500 hectares - which is still only about 0.5% of Tsau //Khaeb’s 2.2 milion hectares. Those six to eight GW of electricity will drive electrolysers to split water piped some 80 kilometres from the burgeoning harbour town into hydrogen and oxygen, with the hydrogen piped back to a new Angra Point harbour facility in Lüderitz, where the ammonia will be produced and loaded onto ships for export.

At the new 80-hectare port - which will be developed in parallel - infrastructure for the production and loading of ammonia will be built, and between sites, common-use infrastructure will be established to support all future green hydrogen-associated endeavours. Underwater pipelines or a physical berth may be constructed at Angra Point, along with the desalination plan, ammonia tanks and air separation units.



National skills audit

Toni Beukes, Hyphen’s head of ESG, said a workforce competency and planning model is being designed while a national skills audit will follow to determine whether ambitious targets to employ 90% Namibians and 20% youth for the 15 000 jobs during construction and 3 000 jobs for the operational phase are achievable. If not, skills development investments may be the resultant trade-off with government when determining which realistic targets will be imposed along the value-chain on engineering, procurement and construction contractors and their subcontractors, she said.

“I think the youth component may increase, but the 90% may not be achievable," she said, despite 67 000 unemployed graduates roaming the country. “Qualifications do not always equate to skills,” she pointed out.

Over the past few months, Hyphen has been engaging with the ministry of environment and tourism in preparation for an environmental and social impact assessment that local experts SLR are contracted to start next year. To develop a comprehensive biodiversity action plan, components like a study of the bird life in the area are well-funded, with N$18 million earmarked to see whether the wind turbines will threaten winged residents.

Meanwhile, 11 masts - each 120 metres high - are gathering data in the park, in order to be able to position the turbines to maximum effect.

“We are now in the engineering phase; the front end engineering design, which includes specifications for the electrolyser, the pipelines and more,” the Hyphen CEO said.

The final investment decision is to be made in 2026, Raffinetti added.

“Our role is in executing this first project on which to build the future [industry]. This is the starting point,” he said.

Beukes noted: “This is a big thing that can get us to where we want to be".

Asked about coming elections and impact changes in government could have on the project, Van der Linden said Namibia does not break contracts and has a spotless record of dealing with changes, pointing to international agreements that are upheld continuously.

"We are in Namibia because we invest based on facts. Namibia is one of the best-run and well-governed countries and we have enormous faith in it,” Raffinetti added.