Namibia has approached the Climate Investment Fund (CIF) for funding to support the country’s emerging green hydrogen production sector.
The CIF is a leading multilateral climate finance partnership that channels concessional finance through six multilateral development banks (MDBs) for both upstream advisory and downstream investment activities to support climate action. The World Bank Group, including the International Finance Corporation, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Development Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank, are the implementing partners of CIF’s investments.
The CIF comprises two funds, namely the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) and the Strategic Climate Fund (SCF).
Namibia’s Green Hydrogen Commissioner James Mnyupe revealed that the country had requested US$150 million (about N$2.76 billion) from the multilateral climate fund.
“Countries around the world can apply for up to US$250 million that they can use to invest in private sector companies. We have asked for about US$150 million. We look forward to the feedback for that in quarter two this year,” Mnyupe told the Namibia Press Agency (Nampa).
“We continue to champion green industrialisation, with of course green hydrogen being a core part of that. But it is really green industrialisation we are after,” he said.
The Commissioner said this year Namibia was anticipated to move beyond the planning phase, with some projects expected to begin production.
“We expect to launch the HyIron production facility, and to start production by the end of February,” Mnyupe said about the green iron project near Arandis in the Erongo region.
HyIron’s Oshivela green iron production plant is expected to produce five tonnes of green iron per hour, powered by a 25-megawatt solar facility and 13.4 megawatts of battery storage during the day.
“That particular plant hopefully starts to operate this quarter. Then we are expecting facilities, such as Hyphen, to really start their feasibility in earnest. We expect to potentially construct our first ammonia bunkering facility this year. This will be a big tank that will store ammonia, and can be used to refuel ships or supply ammonia in the country,” Mnyupe said.
He is optimistic that Hydrogène de France (HDF) Energy Namibia will start the construction of its renewable energy power plant in Erongo.
The HDF project will combine solar photovoltaic power with hydrogen production to provide baseload power for the Swakopmund municipality, he said.
The French company plans to generate 142 Gigawatt-hour of green baseload electricity per year.
“I think this year is the year of going beyond planning. Maybe we now start the construction of two or three key new plants, and start operating and producing a product that we start to trade this year,” said Mnyupe.
