Belgian energy minister Tinne Van der Straeten is advocating a collaborative and inclusive approach to Africa’s green hydrogen development.
As Europe forges ahead with its own energy transition, Van der Straeten emphasised the importance of ensuring Africa remains in control of its vast and valuable renewable resources, particularly wind and solar, while fostering mutually beneficial partnerships.
Van der Straeten’s remarks come as the European Union (EU) and its member states, have been actively supporting Africa’s green hydrogen initiatives. The EU has committed significant financial resources, including a €40 million (more than N$780 million) grant to Namibia, aimed at developing the country’s green hydrogen infrastructure.
Amid this EU support there are whispers of a sort of ‘green colonialism’. Despite these fears the EU emphasises its partnerships are rooted in mutual benefits, aiming to support Namibia’s development rather than exploit its resources.
“There needs to be an inclusive policy, so it is crucial that Africa remains in charge of its natural resources. Nationals should benefit from their resources with no fear. We should approach this emerging sector in Africa with a can-do approach,” the Belgian minister stressed.
Van der Straeten was speaking during the inaugural Global African Hydrogen summit in Windhoek last week. The summit served as a global platform for collaboration and partnerships, investment and the emerging hydrogen value chain.
The aim of the event was to unlock the potential of Africa’s hydrogen opportunity and harness its projected impact on achieving a sustainable and equitable global energy transition.
Moreover, during an exclusive interview with New Era on the sidelines of the summit, Kadri Simson, European commissioner for energy, allayed neo-colonisation fears, saying Namibia is in good hands and has nothing to worry about as the EU also has similar partnerships with other nations.
“Namibia is really in a good company, and we are offering support for Namibia to become a regional hub. We are not taking anything from Namibia, but we are just partners in a win-win situation,” said Simson.
Also speaking during the summit, mines and energy minister Tom Alweendo admitted that the energy transition is a global initiative, and said it is important to collaborate between producers and consumers of green hydrogen and its derivatives.
“Green hydrogen is going to be a global commodity, we need to all agree on green hydrogen standards that the EU is talking about, otherwise if we don’t do that, we are going to have EU standards on their own and different African standards. I hope we will engage and agree on those standards,” said Alweendo.
New deals
During the closing of the three-day summit, green hydrogen commissioner James Mnyupe announced some milestones from the summit.
Through ‘Team Europe’, the EU Commission partnered Dutch, German and Belgian governments to support Namibia’s efforts to create a green industrialisation agenda.
The first package put together was an €8.8 million (about N$179 million) from Team Europe specifically broken down into €3 million (N$60 million) from the Dutch government, about €1.25 million (N$24 million) from the EU Commission and €4.6 million (N$90 million) from the German government. This grant funding is to fund a plethora of activities in Namibia to capacitate the mines and energy ministry to start incubating a green hydrogen economy as part of Namibia’s green industrialisation agenda.
“We’re also looking to deploy some of this money to do common user studies. We’re looking at developing common user best practise guidelines that will help the Namibian government think about how to develop infrastructure such as pipelines and ports and to make sure that multiple projects actually use that infrastructure in an open and transparent manner,” stated Mnyupe.
Some of the funding is more of an operational nature.
More noteworthy funding that came from Team Europe, specifically from the EU Commission, was entrusted to the SDG Namibia One Fund with a whopping €25 million (almost N$500 million) grant facility. This will accompany the €40 million (N$787 million) grant facility that came from the Dutch government. This brings the total being managed by Namibia’s Hydrogen Fund managers from a development fund perspective up to €65 million (more than N$1.2 billion).
These funds are meant to essentially derisk the development of green hydrogen projects and green hydrogen related infrastructure in Namibia. The facility has also been used to provide development capital for the Hyphen project, which accounts for government’s 24% equity contribution.
Why Namibia
Also speaking at last week’s summit, Alessandra Pasini, co-founder and president of Zhero, said two and a half years ago she dreamt of setting up the first green hydrogen project in Namibia.
Zhero is described as a focused developer of green and clean energy projects, such as renewables, green hydrogen and derivatives, interconnections, energy storage and repurposing. She is involved in the Zhero Molecules Walvis Bay Project, which is a 500 000 tonne green ammonia production to be developed 70 kilometres from Walvis Bay.
“We are targeting a final investment decision in 2026, which is a very fast track timing and we’re really looking to develop the project in close partnership with the Namibian government,” said Pasini.
Investors at last week’s summit noted that Namibia has an abundance of open spaces, a supportive and visionary government, a dedicated green hydrogen program office, stable political jurisdiction and low country risk.
Benefits for Namibia from this project would be increased employment, training and upskilling, additional fiscus for government, and equity interest as Zhero are partners with HopHydro to boost private investments and green ammonia production and create value to support domestic agricultural activities.
The company is collaborating with the Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board (NIPDB) on a green ammonia project near Walvis Bay.
Zhero’s projects, along with other initiatives in the region, aim to deploy more than N$375 billion (US$20 billion) to develop large-scale green hydrogen projects to provide the world with clean molecules needed to decarbonise hard-to-abate sectors.
Zhero says its involvement in green hydrogen and ammonia projects in Walvis Bay, is part of a broader effort to establish the country as a leader in the global green energy market.