In another major energy sector development for Namibia, it has emerged that the Port of Antwerp Bruges is planning to develop a €250-million ($267m) hydrogen and ammonia storage and export facility at the Port of Walvis Bay.
The development heralds another major step in a long line of cooperation agreements between Namibia’s ports authority and the Belgium port complex.
In June 2022, Namport announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with its European partners.
Namport said at the time that “the purpose of the MoU is to allow all parties involved to explore the potential for a broad scope of collaboration and further discover and discuss the possibilities of (long-term) cooperation”.
That “long-term cooperation” now appears to have significantly boosted Namibia’s fast-developing green energy sector alongside its industry-related logistical hub development plans.
Bloomberg reports that the facility, which will be equally owned by the Port of Antwerp and the Namibian Ports Authority, will be built within three to five years at a greenfield site near the existing port site, which includes a container terminal.
It is also understood that a unit of Mediterranean Shipping Company in South Africa is in talks to operate the facility.
It will store and ship hydrogen and a derivative, ammonia, produced by companies including Belgium’s Cie Maritime Belge SA.
The aim is to refuel passing ships and transport ammonia for use in heavy industry clusters in Belgium, Germany and elsewhere in Europe that are struggling to reduce their carbon emissions and aren’t suitable for conversion to the use of renewable electricity.
Namibia can serve “as a production hub of green molecules and Antwerp-Bruges as a gateway to serve the European market”, Namport and Port of Antwerp said in a statement.
European industry needs “alternatives to electrons - you can’t electrify” all processes, Antwerp port CEO Jacques Vandermeiren said in an interview near Walvis Bay on Thursday.
The companies also announced that they had launched the first hydrogen-powered ship in Africa, in the form of a tugboat, at the port.
Namport CEO Andrew Kanime described the development as a first step towards “greening” Namibia’s ports.
