{"id":3264,"date":"2026-01-04T17:56:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T17:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/3264\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T17:56:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T17:56:20","slug":"rwe-withdraws-from-10-billion-namibia-green-hydrogen-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/3264\/","title":{"rendered":"RWE withdraws from $10 billion Namibia green hydrogen project"},"content":{"rendered":"

WINDHOEK, Sept 29 (Reuters) – German power utility RWE (RWEG.DE), opens new tab<\/a> said on Monday that it had withdrawn from Namibia’s $10 billion Hyphen green ammonia project, a blow to the southern African nation’s ambitions to become a major hydrogen hub.<\/p>\n

The pullback is the latest example of companies reconsidering investments in a nascent technology that is expensive to develop.<\/p>\n

Sign up here.<\/a><\/p>\n

RWE signed a preliminary non-binding memorandum of understanding with Hyphen in 2022 to take around 300,000 tonnes a year of ammonia – a compound used mostly to make fertiliser – from 2027.<\/p>\n

Ammonia is usually produced using natural gas, and decarbonising that process requires replacing gas with hydrogen extracted from water using renewable energy sources.<\/p>\n

“We can confirm that RWE is currently not pursuing any further projects in Namibia,” the company said in a statement, as demand for hydrogen and hydrogen derivatives such as ammonia develops slower than expected in Europe.<\/p>\n

“Against this backdrop, we have reviewed the relevant projects at RWE. This included the project with Hyphen in Namibia.”<\/p>\n

Hyphen spokesperson Ricardo Goagoseb said RWE had only signed “a memorandum of understanding to explore potential off-take,” not made any final purchasing agreement.<\/p>\n

Indigenous rights groups wrote to the German group in April, complaining that its concession was inside a national park and encroached on their ancestral Nama land.<\/p>\n

Andrea Pietrafesa, legal advisor at the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, in a joint statement with the Nama Traditional Leaders Association, applauded the decision not “to purchase goods produced on land where indigenous rights are violated.”<\/p>\n

RWE said there was no connection between its decision and these complaints.<\/p>\n

Reporting by Nyasha Nyaungwa in Windhoek and Christoph Steitz in Frankfurt; editing by Wendell Roelf, Tim Cocks and Tomasz Janowski<\/p>\n

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab<\/a><\/p>\n

Purchase Licensing Rights<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WINDHOEK, Sept 29 (Reuters) – German power utility RWE (RWEG.DE), opens new tab said on Monday that it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[488,2844,1762,1597,2845,2847,2848,1775,715,495,491,493,1592,1144,1598,1593,1594,2810,1397,1768,714,690,2837,2838,638,102,1595,1766,2839,2840,2832,2831,2841,2833,1399,2842,2846,2836,2835,1590,2834,2072,2843,1396],"class_list":{"0":"post-3264","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-namibia","8":"tag-afr","9":"tag-ceeu","10":"tag-cmpny","11":"tag-com","12":"tag-de","13":"tag-destoukbsm","14":"tag-destousesg","15":"tag-destousnrg","16":"tag-destozabsm","17":"tag-destozatpm","18":"tag-emea","19":"tag-emrg","20":"tag-ener","21":"tag-energy","22":"tag-enff","23":"tag-eng","24":"tag-enr","25":"tag-env","26":"tag-europ","27":"tag-ezc","28":"tag-fin","29":"tag-gen","30":"tag-grntch","31":"tag-hfuel","32":"tag-na","33":"tag-namibia","34":"tag-nrg","35":"tag-publ","36":"tag-rene","37":"tag-renf","38":"tag-repihydrogen","39":"tag-repirenewable-fuels","40":"tag-rnw","41":"tag-rsbiclean-energy","42":"tag-safr","43":"tag-sci","44":"tag-sustainable-business","45":"tag-topicenergy-power","46":"tag-topicenergy-transition","47":"tag-topicmarkets-commodities-energy","48":"tag-topicsustasinability-the-switch","49":"tag-util","50":"tag-utim","51":"tag-weu"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}