Namibian Green Hydrogen Investment Forum | Paris

 

The speed of the energy transition can take sometimes take the breath away. An example of this was evident in upmarket central Paris yesterday with a vibrant but hard-headed combination of global finance, hydrogen developers and Namibian stakeholders seeking to transform a country with no history of being a major global energy player.

I’d been invited along to a session whereby the Namibian Embassy in Paris hosted a green hydrogen and finance seminar. It followed on from something similar in Scotland last week where investors gave practical advice to those with projects in the hydrogen sphere as to how to prepare pitches, some of the hurdles and how to overcome them. Today's session built upon this and took it a stage further. Namibia has excellent renewable resource in both solar and wind and it is pleasing to see significant engagement from myriad global investment houses, banks, big oil and gas, UN, and of course Namibian government.

 

 

Indeed, during the early sessions the financiers showed all to clearly how deeply they are engaging with the global  energy transition and looking beyond the usual suspects. The hydrogen economy – currently niche - and all its derivatives including ammonia, liquid organic hydrogen carrier and others are being given serious consideration regarding financial support. Financiers tend to be dispassionate of course and want their money back. And the old dilemma of how to make the early green hydrogen projects pay is still one which exercises a great deal of attention.

From the outset the financiers set out their terms of reference; there may be well known to those of use who have been through financial closes, but perhaps something of a shock to those outside the energy sector in terms of rigour and de-risking of the end-to-end project life cycle. Their insights and advice were well received by those present.

 

 

Namibia is well placed, offering a long 1500 km coastline coupled with a sparse population means that the country might be well placed to not only provide hydrogen for domestic use but industrialise and also to be able to tap into a nascent export market. The EU the Green Deal, for example, indicates that seven gigawatts of green hydrogen will be available for import to the EU. Should Namibia be able to mobilise quickly they may be able to gain an advantage over others also seeking to tap into this lucrative market, so today's session was a valuable education for both sets of stakeholders.

 

Namibia is hosting a series of large-scale green hydrogen and ammonia mega projects. One such is Hyphen, where we enjoyed a detailed run through of the project with some of the business case drivers expanded by from Enertrag, followed by another round robin session from the financiers themselves one in which they clearly indicated that the appetite for support of viable projects.

The industry is at an early stage and it's difficult to see how non supported projects can meet the financial hurdles.

 

Project Hyphen was one of a number of phased  potential giga scale developments looking to combine the production of hydrogen with that of desalination, electrical output and the shipping of green ammonia abroad.  

 

 

Offshore wind for example, has been supported in the UK with a with a with a remarkable degree of success with the World Bank now producing a series of readable high level global assessment and present here

So much so that the sector now has gained a sectoral deal. Further support and it's been promoted by the UK Government. Perhaps something similar could be done for hydrogen especially the renewable or green form of it under scrutiny in Paris.

 

The feeling was that by moving early Namibia may gain an early mover advantage.  By bringing together such key stakeholders at this early-stage major projects can be de-risked through hard but fruitful dialogue.  Well done to Marie and the team in bring this statement of intent to the world stage in sometimes trying circumstance and let’s hope and see that Namibia can gain in the view of a stable, democratic and forward looking country seeking local content rather than to export raw materials can gain for her people.  I’m doing my bit too, so feel free to join an informal coalition of the willing at Hydrogen Namibia