The hydrogen industry may grow the domestic labour market by creating an estimated 280,000 jobs by 2030 and 600,000 jobs by 2040, contents of Namibia’s Green Hydrogen Derivatives Strategy launched recently reveals.
Of these, about 30% would be direct (in the industry), 20% would be indirect (through goods and services), and 50% would be induced by the in- crease in household incomes.
“Jobs would be higher-skilled (about 10% of direct jobs, e.g., in engineering or management positions), lower-skilled (about 66% of direct jobs, e.g., in manufacturing or administration) and unskilled (about 25% of direct jobs in basic occupations). Namibian citizens currently do not have the skills to fill all of these jobs so the Government will invest in training and tailored immigration policies,” the strategy reads in part.
The report further attests that by 2030 – without targeted interventions – Namibia’s talent pool could number 35- 40,000: 25-30,000 unskilled workers, 5-10,000 low-skilled workers and 5-10,000 skilled workers, including new STEM graduates.
“This leaves a talent gap of 55-60,000 workers, a figure that could rise to 120-130,000 by 2040. To fill this gap, Namibia’s skill development and labour supply strategy will map out the resources and skills needed, identify how to close gaps and develop programmes to do so.
“Up- and re-skilling the passive labour force through vocational programmes for the unemployed and recent graduates in alignment with the Namibian Training Authority could fill a large share of lower skilled jobs by 2025,” further states the report adding that engaging and training the next generation could increase the number of STEM and non-STEM graduates.
For example, the Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management (SASSCAL) has set up a Youth for Green Hydrogen (Y4hydrogen) Scholarship for Namibian students that attracted 1,154 applicants in 2022.
“Immigration would be an important source of highly skilled labour (when policies are eased) and would transfer skills to the local labour force. Hydrogen development projects will be carefully sequenced to manage spikes in labour demand and provide continuous employment,” the strategy acknowledges.
An at-scale hydrogen industry could grow Namibia’s economy substantially. By 2030, it could contribute US$4.1 billion (in real 2022 dollars) to GDP, 32% more than 2030 GDP estimates with no hydrogen industry. By 2040, it could generate an additional US$6.1 billion, 32% higher than current GDP estimates.
Namibia aspires to create an at-scale green fuels industry with a production target of 10- 12 Mtpa hydrogen equivalent by 2050. To this end, it will develop three hydrogen valleys; in the southern region of Kharas, the central region including Walvis Bay port and the capital Windhoek, and the northern region of Kunene. Namibia also aspires to establish an integrated, thriving green ecosystem across Southern Africa by creating synergies in shared infrastructure, manufacturing collaboration and power exports, e.g., with South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Angola.
“In renewable energy, local manufacturing will require the right incentives and enabling conditions, which Namibia is working to put in place. Local tower and blade manufacturing could generate US$7 billion direct GDP impact in 2035- 40 and is forecast to accelerate as green hydrogen production ramps up. These activities are also expected to create an additional 7,000 annual direct jobs. Localizing solar cell and module manufacturing could generate US$4 billion direct GDP impact in 2035-40 and 4,000 direct jobs a year by 2040. Solar localization is expected to increase as the central region develops in the mid to late 2030s,” explains the strategy.
The strategy also notes that core electrolyser component production is complex and requires intense Research and Development (R&D).
Furthermore, it highlights that manufacturing will likely remain overseas in the medium term, but BoP/assembly facilities could be localized when domestic demand picks up (beyond the minimum required scale of 3-4 GW per year).
“Localizing stack (non-membrane) and BoP manufacturing could generate US$5 billion direct GDP impact in 2035-40 as green hydrogen production scales up and installed electrolyser capacity grows. It could create an additional 5,000 jobs in 2035-40. The sustainable biomass harvesting and CO2 production infrastructures required to produce methanol and e-kerosene offer a feasible, high impact opportunity for local content manufacturing. Biomass power plants can be developed and built locally as they are not very complex. Additional benefits include direct job creation and optimal land use through the effective control of bush encroachment,” the strategy reveals.
At COP26, the Government of Namibia announced Hyphen Hydrogen Energy as the preferred bidder for its first giga-scale green hydrogen project. Hyphen Hydrogen Energy obtained a 40-year concession for more than 4,000 km2 of land to develop a US$9.4-billion green hydrogen project (by comparison, Namibia’s GDP in 2021 was US$12.2 billion). The project will be developed in phases, eventually targeting 300,000 metric tpa of green hydrogen production (equivalent to 1,700,000 tpa of ammonia) from 5-7GW of renewable generation and 3GW of electrolyzer capacity. Once fully ramped up, it will employ an estimated 3,000 people and generate 15,000 construction jobs over four years, over 90% of which are expected to be filled by Namibians.
“The Namibia Green Hydrogen Research Institute (NGHRI) will conduct R&D and help localize the value chain. It will function as a distributed Science and Technology Park for university-industry government consortia to conduct R&D and capacity-building, promote entrepreneurship and incubate innovative projects,” the strategy further notes.
Last week and in pursuit of the green hydrogen agenda, Namibia said at the COP27 summit that it had secured over N$9.7 billion (about US$544 million) in climate finance from the Dutch government and European Investment Bank.
The Dutch grant is from infrastructure funding vehicle Invest International, while the facility from the European Investment Bank is to build green hydrogen and renewable energy projects in Namibia.
President Hage Geingob said the funds represented the largest amount of concessionary finance to combat the effects of global warming that his country had secured to date.
“Namibia has now mobilized more than N$11 billion in concessionary climate financing since the launch of HPPII,” presidential advisor, James Mnyupe also said.
Also last week, Namibia signed a memorandum of understanding with the European Union on renewable hydrogen and rare raw materials.
Hydrogen is categorised “green” when it is made with renewable power and is seen as key to help decarbonise industry, though the technology remains immature and relatively costly.
In May, the EU’s energy strategy set a goal of importing at least 10 million tonnes of “green” hydrogen by 2030, with another 10 million tonnes to be produced within the bloc.