Africa-Press – Namibia. HYPHEN Hydrogen Energy chief executive Marco Raffinetti says Namibia has positioned itself to be a leader in the production and exporting of green hydrogen energy.
“Namibia is uniquely placed to be an important role player in the world of decarbonisation through green hydrogen […] You are blessed as a country with amazing renewable resources, both in the form of wind and solar, and in terms of the scale of land that is available. Those are really the ingredients you need to make cheap hydrogen,” he said.
Hyphen Hydrogen Energy (Pty) Limited is a project development company established with the objective of developing, constructing and operating green hydrogen production facilities in Namibia to supply international and regional markets.
As the country makes strides towards its ambitious green hydrogen goals, Hyphen has been pinpointed as one of the preferred bidders for the envisaged production hub to be located on 4 000 square kilometres of land within the Tsau //Khaeb National Park.
This hub, as explained by Raffinetti, would see Namibia turn from a net importer to a net exporter of power, while also addressing the country’s power woes.
“Namibia requires around 4,5 terawatt hours of electricity a year. The excess electricity that we cannot use in the production of hydrogen is somewhere in the order of two terawatt hours a year.
“Namibia currently imports 1,5 terawatt hours from South Africa, so we’ll have two terawatt hours of electricity that we can’t use,” he said.
He added that this is an ideal time to explore this form of energy production due to crises in the world which have jacked up the cost of oil and natural gas, as well as the global urgency to tackle the climate crisis.
The project is projected at US$10 billion and will produce some 300 000 tonnes of green energy.
“Humanity will need to produce 500 to 600 million tonnes of this green hydrogen by 2050 to really achieve global decarbonisation.
“Namibia is really well positioned to meet some of that demand and be a key player as a supplier into Europe, Asia and also into southern Africa in general,” Raffinetti said.
Furthermore, he added that the project will also create a number of jobs. He projects that in its operational phase it would create 3 000 direct jobs.
On the side of construction, 15 000 people would be employed over a four year period; with the potential of that number increasing as the project scales up.
“Our commitment to the government is for 90% of jobs to be fulfilled by Namibians [and] our sincere hope is that the next project after that allows those jobs to become permanent.
“The scale of potential for the project, if met, can become permanent and a lot more than 15 000. If the industry can scale up to its potential, it would need in the order of 200 000 permanent jobs every year,” he said.
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