The German government has designated Hyphen Hydrogen Energy’s green hydrogen project as a strategic foreign project.
Hyphen Hydrogen Energy is developing sub-Saharan Africa’s largest green hydrogen project in Namibia.
The project is a joint venture between controlling shareholder ENERTRAG SE and Nicholas Holdings Limited.
At full-scale development, the project will produce 2 million tonnes of green ammonia annually before the end of the decade for regional and global markets, from ~7GW of renewable generation capacity and ~3GW of electrolyser capacity, cutting 5-6 million tonnes (annually) of CO2 emissions.
The German government reserves the strategic foreign project status for high-priority global projects of strategic interest to that country.
The Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection, Dr Robert Habeck, handed over a Letter of Intent to Dr Gunar Hering, CEO of ENERTRAG, at the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin as part of the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue (BETD).
Namibia’s mines minister, Tom Alweendo, and green hydrogen commissioner James Mnyupe, who is also the presidential economic advisor, witnessed the handover of the letter of intent.
Dr Habeck said Germany supports the development of a green hydrogen economy in Namibia that is sustainable for the population through hydrogen and PtX cooperation.
“The Hyphen project is similarly committed to this. We are therefore prepared to categorise it as a foreign project, under certain conditions, in the strategic interest of the Federal Republic of Germany and thus provide more support than usual through our foreign trade promotion instruments,” Dr Habeck said.
The designated Board Member for International Projects & Technology at ENERTRAG, Dr Tobias Bischof-Niemz, said the Hyphen project not only contributes to the energy transition but is also an important testimony to international cooperation in building new energy trade partnerships based on a shared understanding of democracy.
Hyphen Hydrogen Energy CEO Marco Raffinetti said the Letter of Intent reflects the crucial role projects will play in decarbonising heavy industry in Europe and beyond and the leading role that Germany is playing in driving forward global decarbonisation.
“We thank the German government for its recognition of the significant advancement of our project and its trust in us as a strategic project for Germany,” Raffinetti said.
Alweendo said Hyphen Hydrogen’s Project is the first building block in realising Namibia’s ambitions to incubate a thriving synthetic fuels industry.
“This letter of intent from the German government is a strong signal, further emboldening our collective efforts to deepen and diversify our trade relations,” Alweendo said.
