European Commission Pledges Hydrogen, RE Funding for Namibia

The European Commission has rolled out a funding package to support the deployment of clean hydrogen and renewable power in Namibia.

The package consists of three agreements signed as part of Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson’s tour of Namibia and South Africa, during which she also attended the Global African Hydrogen Summit.

The EU pledged to contribute EUR 50 million ($55.1 million) to the two countries’ green hydrogen investment funds. “Investment will especially target private sector projects across the hydrogen value chain, such as the production, transportation and storage, as well as downstream industries”, Simson said in remarks for the signing ceremony, according to an official transcript.

In another agreement, the EU and Germany will contribute EUR 2.7 million ($3 million) to Namibia’s Mines and Energy Ministry. The amount will help the ministry in energy planning and “help Namibia to expand its renewable generation capacity and increase access, by creating opportunities for decentralized renewable energy solutions in remote areas”, Simson said.

A third agreement secures EUR 1.2 million ($1.3 million) in grants for the Namibia Green Hydrogen Program, with support from Germany and the Netherlands. “This will ensure that the green hydrogen sector is steered and regulated by an effective support mechanism”, the Commissioner said.

“This package is Global Gateway in action – it will invest in hard infrastructure as well as the enabling regulatory and policy environment”, she said.

Global Gateway is an EU investment package launched 2021 to spur cooperation in various areas including energy, transport, healthcare and education. Between 2021 and 2027 the EU plans to invest EUR 300 billion ($330.5 billion) under Global Gateway.

The recently announced support for Namibia follows last year’s endorsement by both sides of a roadmap on an EU-Namibia partnership on sustainable raw materials value chains and renewable hydrogen. The partners made the endorsement during the inaugural Global Gateway forum, with the EU committing EUR 1 billion ($1.1 billion) in investments for Namibia under the partnership.

The endorsed roadmap includes “mobilizing funding for soft and hard infrastructure, including for selected mining, refining and mineral green processing projects (water, rail, renewable energy) and for the upgrade of main transport corridors (port, rail, roads)”, said a statement by the European Commission October 24, 2023.

The roadmap also covers “regulatory alignment, including supporting Namibia in developing a national strategy for critical raw materials and enacting a synthetic fuels act to create an enabling environment for hydrogen and synthetic fuels industry, and ensure compatibility with international green fuels, certification and standards”, the Commission said then.

“The EU needs to secure a sustainable supply of raw materials, especially critical raw materials, as an essential prerequisite for delivering on green and clean energy objectives”, it said.

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