Daures Green Hydrogen Village (DGHV) says operations will start in October when the agriculture component of the project, which includes carbon-free tomatoes will be planted.
This is a change from the projected undertaking which was set to be December 2023 to experience the project’s full realisation.
DGHV chief executive officer Jerome Namaseb said the initial ammonia and hydrogen will be produced during the first quarter of 2024.
“The development of the multimillion-dollar project, will be completed in the next 12 months from procuring of materials, equipment, setting up and operationalisation,” Namaseb said on Monday during the ground-breaking ceremony at Daures in the Erongo Region.
The project is being funded to a tune of over N$220 million, through a grant from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), for a period of 18 months, through Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management (SASSCAL).
“We ran a tender which attracted bidders with amounts of between N$103-N$123 million. So far, we have selected a preferred contractor and are busy finalising the agreement. After these negotiations, we should be ready to lay the shovels in the ground. An energy tender will be put up in the next week weeks to seek for a contractor who will be responsible for handling components of solar, wind farm and battery, which is very crucial to bring phase one to reality,” said Namaseb.
In addition, he said, they are now engaged in direct sourcing of suppliers and handlers for the electrolyser and hydrogen generating assets, after failing to locally secure a substantive service provider.
“Unfortunately, no substantive responses from the bidders were received, now the alternative strategy is with direct engagement with service providers who can provide these equipment and services, which are required to produce hydrogen and ammonia in proponent to the timelines set out,” he said.
“Therefore, we do anticipate commissioning those assets and generate hydrogen towards quarter one of 2024, because by then various components, that includes agriculture and accommodation will be complete in the next 12 months, while at the same time investigating and looking at the production of many derivatives from ammonia, as you know fertiliser being key a key element.”
Last year Daures Green Hydrogen Consortium struck its first offtake agreement with Zimbabwean ammonium nitrate fertilizer manufacturer, Sable Chemicals. The non-binding agreement, will see Sable Chemicals taking up to 40,000 tonnes of green ammonia. In addition, Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) and Enersense Energy Namibia (EEN) are exploring ways inking a deal.
The project aims to revolutionise farming in Africa by potentially producing agricultural produce using fertiliser made from green ammonia, as well as supplying green hydrogen and green ammonia to regional and international markets.
DGHV will be Africa’s first Net Zero village.
In its first phase, the village will employ over 100 Namibians during construction and over 50 permanent Namibians in a modern carbon-free estate, with solar output of 0.99MW, wind 0.3MW, electrolysis 0.5MW, hydrogen 31t/year and ammonia 109t/year.
The consortium aspires to raise this to 400MW of solar, 600MW wind, 420MW electrolysis, hydrogen 60,544t/year and 352,000t/year of ammonia, by 2029/30.
The project will include a research station, training institution, and establishment of a greenhouse to 14 settlements within the radius of the constituency.
Meanwhile, the headman of the Daure Daman Traditional Authority Zacharias Seibeb, encouraged the investors to absorb local people into their employment structures, as well as fast-track the development.
