Itula spreading ‘lies’ on green hydrogen-Alweendo

Minister of mines and energy Tom Alweendo says Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) president Panduleni Itula is spreading false information on the green hydrogen sector.

Alweendo in a statement says Itula made false statements during a conversation with senior members of a community in Namibia’s north.

He says Itula’s statement that the green hydrogen sector will not meet Namibia’s electricity needs is false, because Namibia is developing a solution with Hydrogène de France (HDF) Energy to provide its grid with electricity and critical grid services in close collaboration with NamPower.

“More than $30 million in grants has been deployed and indicative pricing shows that the electricity and associated black start services will be cheaper than imported equivalents.

“Solar and hydrogen are at the core of this solution which could reach the Final Investment Decision (FID) in early 2025,” Alweendo says.

Itula allegedly also said the green hydrogen industry will not create any jobs for Namibians, and that the hydrogen produced would all be shipped out of the country.

Alweendo says HyIron will produce hydrogen in the first three months of 2025, store it in cylinders, and use Namibia to add value to the country’s iron ore and that of neighbouring countries.

Green hydrogen, produced through electrolysis powered by renewable energy sources, offers value addition to iron ore by enabling a cleaner and more sustainable steel production process.

“HyIron will then export green direct reduced iron ore, a valuable commodity for green steel manufacturing.

Regarding employment, HyIron alone has employed more than 400 Namibians during peak construction and deployed more than N$90 million with 60 small and medium enterprises,” the minister says.

Moreover, 700 direct jobs have been created from various green hydrogen projects across the country, Alweendo says.

Itula further likened the green hydrogen industry to the Fishrot fraud and corruption scandal, Alweendo says.

“Insinuating that green hydrogen projects have not properly accounted for how they have spent grant money and characterising a whole new and fledgling industry which will contribute to Namibia’s socio-economic advancement as ‘criminal’ without any proof is irresponsible and careless for any Namibian citizen,” Alweendo says.

BACKGROUND

Itula last week, as part of IPC’s final campaign at Oshakati, said green hydrogen in Namibia has become another Fishrot, because the money invested into the project keeps disappearing.

“I will not allow taxpayers’ hard-earned money to be invested into some projects that are still at an experimental stage.

It is disgusting for people to be forced to invest into something they don’t know yet. Look at the Dâures green hydrogen project where huge amounts of money invested into the project is already missing,” he said.

Itula said once voted into power, his administration would make sure all Namibians benefit from green hydrogen projects as Namibia has enough resources for all people to benefit from.