It will be for 2024… Namibia hopes to open its green hydrogen power plant on this date, the first on the African continent, reports The Financial Afrik. It is in the city of Swakopmund, located on the Atlantic coast, that the project should materialize. The chosen area “is particularly suitable due to its significant solar and wind resources and its proximity to the coast”note The Namibian. While the country imports nearly 40% of its electricity, the plant should eventually allow the production of 300,000 tonnes of green hydrogen per year, with operation 24 hours a day throughout the year. Better still, according to the Namibian press, the green hydrogen thus produced can be exported to other countries, particularly in Africa.
According to the publication of international analyzes Foreign Affairs, to produce said “green” hydrogen, electricity considered “clean” is used – from solar, wind, hydraulic or nuclear energy – to separate water into its two components: hydrogen and oxygen. “The process is simple – it is taught in chemistry classes around the world –, requires no combustion and has few moving parts. Investing in these technologies puts green hydrogen at the center of the future production of widely available clean fuels,” details the American publication in an explanation for the little informed chemist.
The first partnerships signed
Qualified for “solution miracle” by the same Foreign Affairs, green hydrogen is attracting the interest of a growing number of African countries. They note that this energy seems to meet the challenges of climate change as well as the energy needs of a continent in the midst of a demographic and economic boom.
Thus Egypt has just signed a memorandum of understanding with Fortescue Future Industries, an Australian company which should help the country to develop a green hydrogen project, indicates Al-Monitor. More recently, a Saudi company was commissioned to build a green hydrogen facility in Egypt. These projects are part of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) to be held in Sharm El-Sheikh next November.
Morocco also has great ambitions in the field of green hydrogen production. Thus, according to the Moroccan site Yabladi, On September 14, the Institute for Research in Solar Energy and New Energies (Iresen) announced that it had completed the installation of its first green hydrogen production system on a micro-pilot scale. Moreover, last June, the Moroccan survey site Le Desk revealed, in an in-depth article, that Total Eren, a subsidiary of the French energy giant TotalEnergies, was considering two megaprojects in Morocco and Mauritania for the production of green hydrogen. This dual project “supposes the installation of no less than 10 GW of renewable electricity production capacity to supply the electrolysis units which will produce hydrogen, primarily intended for export to Europe. A project that will require several billion dollars of investment”, then indicated the Moroccan site.
Besides Morocco, Le Desk rightly notes that elsewhere in Africa “several other green hydrogen production projects are underway, particularly in South Africa and the DRC”.