Mines minister Tom Alweendo has revealed that government has set up a Green Hydrogen Council, Chaired by Director General of the National Planning Commission, Obeth Kandjoze to supervise the implementation of government’s green hydrogen plans.
The council according to Alweendo, “consists of ministers in charge of sectors that are relevant to what we need to do, Minister of Environment, Water, Finance and Director General of the NPC who will chair the council,” Alweendo told the Global Energy Center (GEC), an organization which promotes energy security by working alongside government, industry, civil society, and public stakeholders.
“That’s a concreate step that ensures that the process is being followed up and things are being done.”
The Mines minister said government was also working on a Green Hydrogen Strategy to guide it through the implementation of its Green Hydrogen plans.
“We are taking good steps to ensure that it happens and are also we busy crafting the strategy. That is the rule book that will tell us exactly how we are going to do it,” Alweendo said.
This comes as he revealed that government plans to announce winners of its Green Hydrogen Request for Proposals (RFP) bid which closed in September, will be announced at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland in November.
Government according to the Mines minister is currently evaluating the bids, with nine proposals received according to the Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board (NIPDB).
“We issued a RFP for Green Hydrogen and we were actually surprised, and overwhelmed at what we received and right now we are busy evaluating those bids. We are hoping that we can announce the winners at the Top 26 in Glasgow, which is going to happen in November,” he said.
The COP26 summit brings together parties to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Finance Minister Ipumbu Shiimi speaking during the same vent said the RFP had also drawn interest from South African.
“We are seeing interest from South Africa at government level and we are seeing interest from South Africa companies that want to partner with us and one of SA energy companies is one that has also put in their bids,” he said during his GEC presentation.
