GERMAN energy company RWE has signed a deal that could see it buy 300,000 tonnes per annum of ammonia from Hyphen Energy's planned $10 billion green hydrogen project in an environmentally sensitive area of Namibia. News of this agreement came just days before Germany's Minister for Economic Affairs Robert Habeck began a five-day trip to Namibia and South Africa dominated by Berlin's energy diversification and decarbonisation agenda, focused on green hydrogen. RWE, which is a significant oil and gas producer, said it could import the Namibian ammonia via a facility it aims to have ready to operate at Brunsbettel, Germany, in 2026. Hyphen - a joint venture of German renewables player Ener-trag and UK infrastructure company Nicholas Holdings - aims to start exports of ammonia by the end of 2026 or early 2027 from a new port at Luderitz, with an initial capacity of 1.7 million tpa. Speaking at African Energy Week in Cape Town in mid-October, Jonathan Metcalfe, Hyphen's business development manager for southern Africa, outlined the key building blocks of a two-phase project. Underpinning the scheme will be between 6 and 7 gigawatts of renewable energy, weighted towards wind (some 800 wind turbines are due to be installed) as opposed to solar, he said, because onshore winds speeds "at most of our sites are above 10 metres per second", adding that this is equivalent to velocities offshore Europe.
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