But environmentalists are not the only ones who\u2019ve criticized the choice of location. An expanded port, built to facilitate ammonia exports, will sit immediately adjacent to a site that housed a labor and extermination camp during Namibia\u2019s 1904\u20131908 genocide, in which tens of thousands of Nama and Herero people were killed by German soldiers during a period of resistance to colonial rule. A 2024 report commissioned by Nama and Herero leaders argues that the extension of port infrastructure would \u201cdesecrate\u201d the heritage of the area and those who died there. It doesn\u2019t help the optics that Hyphen\u2019s majority shareholder, the renewable power producer Enertrag, is a German company.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Beyond these sensitivities, Namibia\u2019s broader hydrogen aspirations remain subject to many questions. While the country\u2019s desert climate is ideal for generating power, the other key input for green hydrogen\u2014water\u2014is scarce. The central coastal region, where the HyIron and CMB.Tech projects (as well as several others in early-stage development) are based, already sources much of its water from a local seawater desalination plant that\u2019s powered only in part by renewables. Other facilities are planned here and in the south, but some worry that hydrogen projects could face water-related bottlenecks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want your green hydrogen projects to be implemented here, we want our household problems to be solved.\u201d<\/p>\n
William Minnie, youth spokesperson, the Landless People\u2019s Movement <\/p>\n
Namibia\u2019s prospects also hinge on a global market for green fuels that\u2019s highly precarious. Over the past few years, the hydrogen sector has gone from a period of \u201chype\u201d to one of \u201cdisillusionment,\u201d according to Martin Tengler, head of hydrogen research at BloombergNEF, which studies markets for new energy technologies. Absent incentives, Tengler is skeptical that green hydrogen will ever reach cost parity with gray hydrogen in most parts of the world. Certain industries, though, could embrace it even if it costs more. He notes that some higher-end automakers have already shown a willingness to pay a premium for green steel, even if it means a car\u2019s price goes up by 2 or 3%. (Benteler, a German metals processing firm that supplies the automotive market, has committed to purchasing test quantities of green iron from HyIron.)<\/p>\n
Uncertainties also surround the future of ammonia. According to the IEA road map, ammonia made from green hydrogen could power 44% of global shipping by midcentury. But it, too, is likely to remain expensive relative to both conventional fuels and carbon-based alternatives like methanol and liquefied natural gas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some in Namibia are especially worried about Hyphen, which has not yet signed any binding agreements with customers. In a bid to boost Hyphen\u2019s attractiveness to other financiers, the government assumed a 24% ownership stake in the venture. The money it\u2019s put in so far, roughly \u20ac24 million ($27\u00a0million), is covered by a Dutch government grant. But Namibia\u2019s portion of construction would likely be financed through loans, exposing taxpayers to the project\u2019s risks. Detlof von Oertzen, an energy consultant who\u2019s been exploring Namibia\u2019s hydrogen potential since independence, believes this is reckless, especially given the country\u2019s pressing needs in food, health care, and education. \u201cWe have a massive budget deficit,\u201d he tells me. \u201cWe should not be binding resources to projects that might not end up leading anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like many Namibians I spoke to, von Oertzen thinks the government\u2019s targets for hydrogen production, and jobs associated with it, are wildly unrealistic. At the same time, he and other critics believe there are ways in which the industry can contribute to national development. Despite his misgivings about the government\u2019s support of Hyphen, he believes a desalination plant that the company plans to build could play an important role in combating local water shortages in Namibia\u2019s sparsely populated south and, in turn, help draw more industry and people.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But environmentalists are not the only ones who\u2019ve criticized the choice of location. An expanded port, built to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102],"class_list":{"0":"post-4434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-namibia","8":"tag-namibia"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4434","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=4434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}