Namibia is located in South-West Africa and with 825,000 km², it is more than twice the size of Germany. With just 2.5 million inhabitants, the country is extremely sparsely populated. The Namib Desert, the oldest desert in the world, and the Kalahari dry savannah define the region's landscape. Starting in 2023, the German-British consortium HYPHEN Hydrogen will erect a plant in the Namib Desert to produce green hydrogen from renewable energies. The hydrogen will be converted into ammonia for transport and then shipped to Germany and elsewhere. The first delivery is planned for 2028.
HYPHEN Hydrogen is the key project of the global energy transition. The film highlights the importance of this unique project for the energy transition, the people involved and the eventful history between Germany and Namibia.
This history began at the end of the 19th century with the aggressive settlement policy in “German South-West Africa”, a German colony since 1885. This was followed by the uprising of the Herero and Nama tribes in 1904-08, which was bloodily put down by the German “Schutztruppe” (‘protection force’).
In this first genocide of the 20th century, up to 80 percent of the indigenous population was killed. The German restitution policy was a key milestone in German-Namibian relations. It is now being transformed into a forward-looking business model through Namibian energy policy.
The HYPHEN project secures an important energy supplier for the industrial location Germany and other countries (e.g. South Korea) and provides the world with a practical model for the future global energy transition featuring a climate-neutral hydrogen economy.
