The German government has presented a letter of intent to Enertag, a global renewable energy company, confirming the suitability of the Hyphen Green Hydrogen Project as a designated strategic foreign undertaking.

The strategic foreign project designation for the US$10 billion project renders it eligible to receive targeted support.

Strategic foreign project designation is a status reserved for high-priority global projects of strategic interest to Germany.

The letter of intent was signed in Berlin as part of the Berlin Transition Dialogue, which was attended by the Minister of Mines and Energy, Tom Alweendo, and the Green Hydrogen Commissioner, James Mnyupe.

Alweendo says the letter of intent is a strong signal from the German government and emboldens Namibia's efforts to deepen and diversify trade volumes with Germany. 

The project he adds is the first building block in realising Namibia's ambitions to incubate a thriving synthetic fuels industry.

Hyphen was awarded preferred-bidder status for the project earmarked for the development of the 4,000 square kilometres of land in the Tsau ||Khaeb National Park, near Luderitz in the ||Kharas Region.

According to Mining Weekly, Hyphen and the Namibian government intend to start the construction of the project in January 2025, with commissioning of the first phase by the end of 2026.

Mining Weekly reports that the Hyphen Green Hydrogen Project is seen as the first step of a large-scale green hydrogen industry in various regions of Namibia to support both economic growth and assist the world in achieving its decarbonisation goals.

The Hyphen Green Hydrogen project intends to produce one million metric tonnes of green ammonia by 2027 and then two million metric tonnes by 2029, mostly for export.