Namibia’s green hydrogen project has been making global headlines, yet there is currently no domestic market for renewable hydrogen.
According to a report by the International Energy Agency on Renewable Energy Opportunities for Namibia, the country is looking at exporting all produced hydrogen.
“Currently, Namibia has no domestic market for renewable hydrogen, but the country is actively exploring ways to allocate a part of the production for future domestic use. In the meantime, all production would need to be exported,” the report states.
The report showed that the most cost effective place to export the green hydrogen to would be South Africa via a pipeline.
“… compared to other possible exporters outside the continent that would need to rely on more expensive transport in the form of shipping,” the report states.
Pipeline transport of hydrogen is a mature technology, with roughly 4 600km of hydrogen pipelines currently in operation, over 90% of which are in Europe and the United States.
However, to transport the hydrogen, the country will need a significant upfront investment for building infrastructure and workforce training.
“The development of a pipeline crossing national borders requires taking into account various geopolitical aspects, carefully coordinating all the various entities and stakeholders involved and it would also require considerable time for implementation,” it says.
As of July, Namibia has spent N$380 million on consultancy services, feasibility studies and subsistence and travel (S&T) allowances for the development of green hydrogen projects across the country.
These projects include the Hyphen Hydrogen Energy project, the Dâures green hydrogen village, Cleanergy Solutions, HyRail, Hydrogene De France (HDF), HyIron and Zhero.
Namibia has received a total pledge of N$1.7 billion from European government-related companies.
Invest International from The Netherlands pledged the highest amount at N$835 million.
Germany’s federal ministry of education and research pledged N$777 million, its federal ministry for economic affairs and climate action pledged N$87 million, and the European Union pledged N$23 million.
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