Namibia’s bold green hydrogen experiment, once hailed as Africa’s model for clean industrialisation, has entered a defining moment.
Within weeks, three developments have shaken the foundations of the country’s flagship renewable-energy drive — the resignation of James Mnyupe, the withdrawal of RWE from its offtake talks with Hyphen Hydrogen Energy, and the Ohlthaver & List Group’s sale of its 51 per cent shareholding in Cleanergy Solutions Namibia.
Each event tells a different part of the story: a young industry navigating the tension between ambition and execution.
James Mnyupe was the face and voice of Namibia’s green hydrogen dream for five years. As Economic Adviser to the late President Hage G. Geingob and Green Hydrogen Commissioner, he shaped the country’s policy direction, investor engagement and international partnerships.
His departure marks the end of an era in which one individual bridged the worlds of policy, finance and diplomacy to give the hydrogen vision a coherent identity.
In his farewell note, Mnyupe called it “the highest honour of my professional journey,” expressing pride in helping to “diversify the economy, create meaningful employment and position Namibia as a global player in the emerging green industrialisation space.”
He will join Thyssenkrupp Uhde as Senior Vice-President for Sub-Saharan Africa, where he plans to establish a regional base that could still serve Namibia’s ambitions. Yet his exit leaves a clear vacuum in leadership and institutional continuity at a critical time — as Namibia shifts from policy frameworks to project delivery.
On 29 September 2025, German power utility RWE confirmed that it had withdrawn from Namibia’s US$10 billion Hyphen Hydrogen Energy project, once seen as the country’s breakthrough in securing a European export foothold.
In 2022, RWE had signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to take up to 300,000 tonnes of green ammonia per year from 2027, a deal widely reported as Hyphen’s earliest commercial success.
However, with the hydrogen demand in Europe developing more slowly than expected, RWE reassessed its global portfolio.
“We can confirm that RWE is currently not pursuing any further projects in Namibia,” the company said, adding that it had reviewed its hydrogen pipeline and “included the project with Hyphen in Namibia.”
Hyphen spokesman Ricardo Goagoseb clarified that RWE had never made a binding commitment. Still, the exit erases a symbolic milestone that had given investors confidence in the project’s export viability.
The decision also followed months of international scrutiny over the project’s location in Tsau Khaeb National Park.
Nama traditional leaders and European rights groups argued that ancestral land rights had been overlooked.
RWE denied any link between the complaints and its decision, but the episode exposed the social sensitivities accompanying large-scale energy projects in Namibia’s conservation zones.
The third significant development came in October 2025, when the Ohlthaver & List Group of Companies (O&L) announced it would sell its 51 per cent stake in Cleanergy Solutions Namibia to H₂Infra NV, a subsidiary of Belgium’s CMB.TECH.
The deal, awaiting clearance from the Namibian Competition Commission, transfers full ownership of Cleanergy to its European partner.
For O&L, one of Namibia’s oldest conglomerates, the Cleanergy venture had marked a historic entry into the country’s green hydrogen space.
The joint venture developed Namibia’s first public hydrogen refuelling station in Walvis Bay and was expected to pioneer hydrogen-powered locomotives under the HyRail project with TransNamib.
The HyRail initiative was launched in partnership with CMB.TECH was announced in 2023 as Africa’s first hydrogen-powered rail pilot, intended to convert a series of diesel locomotives to dual-fuel engines using locally produced hydrogen.
The project was initially scheduled to commence in April 2024, but it was postponed to April 2025 due to supply-chain and financing delays.
It was eventually handed over to Cleanergy Solutions Namibia to drive forward. However, like several other pilot projects in the sector, HyRail stalled before implementation, leaving TransNamib still reliant on traditional diesel traction.
“As O&L, we are immensely proud of our role in co-founding Cleanergy and laying the cornerstone of Namibia’s green hydrogen future,” said Executive Chairman Sven Thieme.
“This milestone reflects our purpose of creating a future where we enhance life and our commitment to pioneering industries that empower Namibia’s economy.”
CMB.TECH said it remained committed to the partnership’s original goals, with a focus now shifting to ammonia production, storage, berthing and pipeline development.
The transition effectively turns Cleanergy into a wholly foreign-owned entity, highlighting both the scale of capital required and the limited domestic capacity to sustain it.
The convergence of these three events has sent ripples through Namibia’s energy and investment community.
Mnyupe’s resignation removes the architect who personified the vision and carried political and investor confidence across continents.
RWE’s withdrawal underscores the fragility of early hydrogen markets and the need for bankable offtakers before large-scale construction can begin. O&L’s exit, and the quiet fading of the HyRail project, show how domestic firms face structural and financial constraints in sustaining participation once international partners take control of significant assets.
Yet, these shifts do not signal collapse — instead, a transition from enthusiasm to realism. Namibia’s hydrogen roadmap remains one of the most advanced on the continent, with policy alignment, permitting systems and foreign partnerships already in place.
The challenge now lies in converting policy into production — building infrastructure, securing long-term offtake contracts, and ensuring that communities share in the benefits of industrialisation.
