(Lormont, France / Swakopmund, Namibia) – French independent power producer (IPP), power plant solutions provider and fuel cell manufacturer Hydrogen de France Energy Pty Ltd. (HDF Energy) would like to have a hydrogen power plant in operation in Namibia by 2024. According to media information, the company has made a step forward and now wants to complete its Environmental and Social Impact Assessment report.
According to the company subsidiary HDF Energy Namibia (Pty) Ltd., which was founded in 2021, the location is. the port city of Swakopmund, with around 45.000 inhabitants the fourth largest city in the country and the administrative center of the Erongo region. Investments amount to more than three billion Namibian dollars (180 million euros).
Hydrogen and electricity around the clock
Solar systems with an installed capacity of 24 megawatts will provide the electricity for the 85 megawatt electrolysers. According to a project description, the water will be obtained from a seawater desalination plant on the Atlantic north of Swakopmund. The initially required around 200 cubic meters of demineralized water per day is piped to the power plant via a pipeline around six kilometers long. The capacity of the desalination plant is around 600 cubic meters of water per day.
A seawater desalination plant north of Swakopmund (left, blue) delivers the demineralized water via a pipeline (dark blue) to the hydrogen power plant (right, green). The gray areas show the planned PV systems. Yellow-green: hydrogen filling station; Red: substation. © HDF Energy Namibia / Screenshot from the environmental impact assessment documents from February 2022
The hydrogen is stored and can be used around the clock to produce electricity using fuel cells. Battery containers with a capacity of 90 megawatt hours serve as short-term energy storage devices. The construction of a hydrogen filling station is also planned. “We can produce 142 gigawatt hours annually, enough for 142.000 inhabitants,” Nicolas Lecomte, HDF Energy’s director for southern Africa, told Reuters. The plant is intended to improve supplies to the country, which currently imports much of its electricity from South Africa and Botswana. In addition, HDF will “soon also develop projects in East Africa,” said Lecomte.
Further hydrogen projects announced in Namibia
As reported, a number of hydrogen projects are currently being planned in Namibia. For example, the Ohlthaver & List Group and the Belgian CMB Tech Ltd. the construction of a demonstration plant for the production of green hydrogen to operate a filling station in Walvis Bay, half an hour's drive south of Swakopmund. Completion is scheduled for the end of 2023. “Depending on the results, a larger-scale production facility will follow in a second phase,” said the companies. The project development is the responsibility of the new joint venture Cleanergy Namibia.
The Hyphen Hydrogen Energy Pty Ltd. In contrast, has announced a hydrogen project of considerable size. By the end of the decade, the company wants to build plants that will produce around 9,91 tons of green hydrogen annually for regional and global markets for around ten billion dollars (350.000 billion euros).
The output of the electrolyzers is estimated at three gigawatts, which are fed with renewable electricity from power plants with an installed capacity of five to six gigawatts. Construction is scheduled to begin in January 2025, and the first phase is expected to be commissioned by the end of 2026. Hyphen Hydrogen Energy is a joint venture between the investor Nicholas Holdings Limited and Enertrag South Africa (Pty) Ltd., a subsidiary of the Brandenburg power producer Enertrag AG.
40 million euros from the BMBF
Further projects, some on a gigawatt scale, as well as hydrogen centers are in the planning and development phase. In August 2021, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) concluded a hydrogen partnership between Germany and Namibia and promised funding totaling 40 million euros.
In July 2022, the Federal Ministry of Economics appointed one Special Representative for German-Namibian climate and energy cooperation. Its task is to build a hydrogen economy as part of a cooperation agreement with the Namibian government.
Graphic above
HDF wants to generate electricity around the clock with a hydrogen power plant © HDF Energy
