Turn hydrogen into industry

Namibia’s green hydrogen ambition is best understood not as an energy project, but as an industrialisation strategy.

The objective is to use the country’s exceptional renewable-energy resources to build productive capabilities around hydrogen, green ammonia, green iron, ports, logistics, desalination, engineering and skills.

As former Green Hydrogen Commissioner James Mnyupe argued, hydrogen is not the ultimate objective. The larger prize is a green-industrialisation pathway capable of advancing Vision 2030.

That raises a bigger question for Africa: can the energy transition help economies move from commodity extraction towards higher-value production?

From renewable advantage to industrial capability

Namibia has strong solar and wind resources, Atlantic ports and mineral deposits. But these advantages must be converted into productive capability.

Cleanergy Solutions Namibia’s Walvis Bay development combines solar power, a 5-megawatt electrolyser, battery storage and hydrogen applications for trucks, port equipment, rail and maritime activities.

The bigger opportunity lies downstream.

Hydrogen becomes economically transformative when it enables competitive production of green ammonia, iron, steel, chemicals, synthetic fuels and other tradable products rather than being exported largely as an energy carrier.

The HyIron Oshivela facility illustrates this shift, using renewable electricity and green hydrogen to produce low-carbon iron. It combines renewable energy with mineral beneficiation and manufacturing.

This is particularly relevant to Africa. The continent has abundant renewable resources and many minerals required for the energy transition, yet too much value is still exported in relatively unprocessed form.

Green industrialisation should therefore connect renewable electricity to mineral beneficiation, manufacturing, transport, logistics and regional value chains. Hydrogen should enable this system, not become another isolated export commodity.

The conversion challenge

Namibia’s ambitions are unfolding against a difficult economic backdrop. Growth slowed from 3.7% in 2024 to 1.7% in 2025, while the International Monetary Fund projects 2.1% growth in 2026.

Green investment offers an opportunity for diversification, but it is not an automatic solution.

Hyphen Hydrogen Energy’s proposed project, for example, envisages more than US$10bn in capital investment and annual green-ammonia production of 1 million tonnes by 2028, rising to 2 million tonnes by 2030.

Such projects could reshape Namibia’s economy. But their impact will depend on financing, final investment decisions, supporting infrastructure, competitive offtake arrangements and implementation.

Success should therefore be judged not by announced investment or hydrogen capacity alone, but by what these projects create across the economy.

Investment should become productive assets; renewable energy should provide competitive industrial power; minerals should generate greater domestic value; and project spending should create Namibian firms, jobs, skills and technology.

This requires ports, electricity transmission, rail, water, skills, regulation and finance to develop alongside hydrogen projects.

Five priorities

Namibia should focus less on announcing projects and more on converting investment into structural transformation.

First, prioritise local value addition through green ammonia, green iron, low-carbon metals and other processed exports where commercially viable.

Second, develop common-user infrastructure so ports, power systems, desalination, rail and storage can serve multiple industries.

Third, build domestic capabilities through supplier development, technical training, apprenticeships and partnerships with universities and vocational institutions.

Fourth, use public finance selectively to address genuine market failures while limiting sovereign risk.

Finally, measure outcomes, including domestic value added, employment, supplier participation, skills, export diversification, fiscal revenues and energy and water security.

This article has been shortened.