June 22, 2023 [Offshore Technology]- The Netherlands and Namibia have formed a partnership to cooperate on green hydrogen infrastructure that will lead to new hydrogen supply chains from Lüderitz to Rotterdam and its hinterland.

Namely, the Port of Rotterdam, Gasunie, Invest International, the Government of the Republic of Namibia (GRN), Hyphen Hydrogen Energy, Namibian Ports Authority (NamPort) and NamPower signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to drive the delivery of what is described as sub-Saharan Africa’s largest, and only, fully vertically-integrated green hydrogen project.

With this MoU, the three Dutch state-owned companies expressed their intention to underscore their commitment to further foster, deepen and structure the existing cooperation between Namibia and the Netherlands on green hydrogen in the coming years, with the purpose to develop the hydrogen economy in Namibia and a new export trade relation with the Netherlands and the rest of Northern Western Europe.

At the same time, the Namibian government announced it would exercise its right to take up a 24% equity interest in the Hyphen project. As explained, the investment will be held through the blended financing infrastructure fund SDG Namibia One, which will look to raise money from local institutional investors and investors from around the world to develop Namibian green hydrogen projects and related infrastructure.

The establishment of the fund will see Namibia’s Environment Investment Fund partnering with two Dutch organisations, Climate Fund Managers and Invest International in the establishment of NH2 Fund Managers as the fund manager of SDG Namibia One. 100% of the initial funding of €40 million (~N$850 million) is being provided as grant funding by Invest International and will be housed by the fund.

The MoU also builds on the existing relationship between NamPort, the Port of Rotterdam and Hyphen in the development of the new plan for the port of Lüderitz which had been underway for over a year and will be completed in the coming months.  Under the MoU, the parties will work together, sharing their collective knowledge and expertise in the design of the infrastructure necessary to deliver on Namibia’s green hydrogen production ambitions.

The signing of the MoU coincided with a joint working visit by Mette Frederiksen, Prime Minister of Denmark, andMark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, to Namibia on 19 June.

During this visit, governments of South Africa, the Netherlands and Denmark concluded a Heads of Agreement (HoA) with the intention to launch a new SA-H2 Fund, an innovative blended finance fund that will facilitate and accelerate the development of a green hydrogen sector and circular economy in South Africa.

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