By:Nghiinomenwa-vali Erastus
The Daures Green Village in Erongo region, which was launched last year, will consider the use of desalinated water as it expands from the pilot phase.
The Consortium that manages the Daures Green Hydrogen project, led by Enersense Energy Namibia, highlighted this in a statement released this week.
The project, which is under development, aims to demonstrate hydrogen and ammonia production, management and value addition.
It further seeks to showcase how the country can tap into the value chain of hydrogen and ammonia through the production of ammonia sulphate fertilisers.
The Consortium explained that there is an expected high demand for water as the project expands and thus seeks to procure more water from the French government-owned Erongo Desalination Plant or build their own to meet the expected increased water demand.
“Future phases will explore the utilisation of desalinated water from the existing desalination facility in the Erongo region or the establishment of an independent desalination plant to meet the project’s own water requirements,” the Consortium stated.
The project site for the Daures Green Hydrogen Village, which comprises a production plant, community partnerships, green schemes and a fertiliser plant, is located on district road D2303.
The project is therefore approximately 100 kilometres away from Uis and 140 kilometres away from Henties Bay, with a direct distance of 40 kilometres to the sea.
According to the Consortium assessment, water requirements for hydrogen projects are less than 2% of the project development budget and they vow to implement sustainable and responsible water management practices throughout the project’s lifecycle.
The project will be developed over four distinct phases, each having distinct water and energy requirements.
The Consortium indicated for the first phase, the water supply and availability is secured.
According to the number received, the Village requires approximately 70m3 of water (70,000 Liters) per day for all its operations in the pilot phase.
This requirement is for the hydrogen/ammonia production and cooling: which consumes 10 m3 per day to produce 25 m3 of hydrogen per hour and subsequently 270 kg of green ammonia per day.
At full capacity in summer, the smart agriculture greenhouses will require 49 m3 of water per day to irrigate up to 13,000 m2 of high value crops such as tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.
The supporting facilities and infrastructure such as houses, camp sites and the Eco Lodge, will require 11 m3 of water per day at full occupancy.
All these water requirements will be exclusively sourced from already drilled eight boreholes on-site with an average yield of 5m3 per hour per borehole, the Consortium stated.
The borehole water will be treated through the Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment Plant, with the Consortium saying that there are no plans to source water from the !Ūxab river, an ephemeral river in north-western Namibia. Its lower section forms the border between Kunene and Erongo regions.
In terms of energy requirement, the Consortium revealed the pilot phase will operate on renewable energy, with an approximate capacity of 0.88 MW, a combination of wind and solar power.
Namibia is planning to produce green hydrogen at industrial scale for export and for domestic utilisation if the country manages to find commercial ways to use ammonia or hydrogen.
Currently, a feasibility study is being undertaken to guide the way forward on the industrial production of green hydrogen in southern Namibia.
In May this year Cabinet approved the entry into an agreement with Hyphen Hydrogen Energy to govern the development, implementation and operation of Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest, and its only fully vertically integrated, green hydrogen project.
According to estimates, the country sets its sights on a production target of 10-12 million metric tonnes per annum (Mtpa) of hydrogen equivalent by the year 2050. Email: erastus@thevillager. com.na