The Oshivela project in the west of the country is backed by the German government.

Namibia has begun construction of Africa’s first decarbonised iron plant, to be powered exclusively by green hydrogen, the country’s investment promotion body said.

Steelmaking is one of the most polluting industries in the world and the industry is seeking to shift away from coal-fired plants and towards the use of decarbonised iron.

The Oshivela project in western Namibia is backed by the German federal government, which has injected 13 million euros, and will use renewable energy to generate 15 000 tons of iron per year with no carbon emissions, the Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board (NIPDB) said in a statement.

Namibia last year became the first African country to sign an agreement with the European Union to supply the bloc with green hydrogen and minerals needed for clean energy technology.

Production at the plant is set to begin in the final quarter of 2024, with plans eventually to ramp up production to one million metric tons of green iron a year.

The iron produced at the plant can also be used as a preliminary product in steel production in Germany to manufacture green steel for the production of wind turbines or vehicles, said Rainer Baake, Special Envoy for German-Namibian Climate and Energy Cooperation.

The project’s developers, a consortium of German and Namibian companies, said the plant will use HyIron technology, which processes iron ore in a rotary kiln with the help of green hydrogen.

The German government recently updated its national hydrogen strategy to further speed up the market ramp-up for a hydrogen economy as part of its aim to become a global leader in the sector. Namibia, a former German colony, plays a central role in these efforts. In cooperation with German investors, the southwestern African state’s government commissioned Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest green hydrogen production project. Namibia’s cabinet approved the entry into a 10-billion dollar project to build wind farms and photovoltaic plants with a total capacity of seven gigawatts (GW) to produce green ammonia, a hydrogen derivative which can be transported more easily.

The direct reduced iron, or sponge iron, that is produced can then be shipped to steelworks in Germany. “Namibia has ideal conditions for producing green hydrogen with the help of wind and solar energy,” said economy and climate action minister Robert Habeck. “Since Namibia has large iron ore deposits, green hydrogen can be used to produce green iron cost-effectively in the immediate vicinity of the mining sites – an important preliminary product also for the decarbonisation of steel production in Germany.”

The overall investment is currently N$600 million, with a third of that coming from the German ministry of economy and climate. The project would employ 50 people during its pilot stage.