Credit: worldatlas.com

Namibia is a long way from Europe, but desperate emissions-obsessed governments may not care. Morocco is a lot nearer as one UK energy firm has already noticed.
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As Europe struggles to decarbonise its economy and wean itself off Russian oil and gas, one of the world’s sunniest and most arid nations is pitching itself to the continent as an answer to its problems, says Euractiv.

A delegation from sub-Saharan Africa’s driest country has been touring Europe to tout their nation as a potential powerhouse of clean energy.

They say Namibia can produce so much solar power it will soon be self-sufficient in electricity – and, by the end of the decade, could become an exporter of so-called green hydrogen.

“We came to Europe saying we have this amazing sun,” said James Mnyupe, economic adviser to the Namibian presidency.

He was in Rotterdam earlier this month for the “World Hydrogen Summit” trade fair and on Wednesday was making a pitch in Paris ahead of a trip to Davos.

A huge, chiefly desert country in southwestern Africa with a population of just 2.5 million, Namibia is sun-drenched and bone-dry.

That makes it perfect for erecting gigantic solar farms, whose power can be used to help make hydrogen – which in turn can be used for fuel or converted into ammonia to make fertiliser.

Producing hydrogen entails splitting water into its component parts of hydrogen and oxygen, using an energy-gobbling technique called electrolysis.

Namibia says it is in a unique position to make the process clean.

Boasting a vast coastline on the South Atlantic, it would use sea water that is desalinated and then electrolysed using clean renewables.

The hydrogen would be piped to a terminal and then exported, “to Rotterdam, Germany or South Africa” as well as used at home, said Mnyupe.

Full article here.

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May 20, 2022 at 06:47AM