The pullback is the latest example of companies reconsidering investments in a nascent technology that is expensive to develop.<\/p>\n
RWE signed a preliminary non-binding memorandum of understanding with Hyphen in 2022 to take around 300 000 tonnes a year of ammonia, a compound used mostly to make fertiliser, from 2027.<\/p>\n
Ammonia is usually produced using natural gas, and decarbonising that process requires replacing gas with hydrogen extracted from water using renewable energy sources.<\/p>\n
“We can confirm that RWE is currently not pursuing any further projects in Namibia,” the company said in a statement, as demand for hydrogen and hydrogen derivatives such as ammonia develops slower than expected in Europe.<\/p>\n
“Against this backdrop, we have reviewed the relevant projects at RWE. This included the project with Hyphen in Namibia.”<\/p>\n
Hyphen Spokesperson Ricardo Goagoseb said RWE had only signed “a memorandum of understanding to explore potential off-take,” not made any final purchasing agreement.<\/p>\n
Indigenous rights groups wrote to the German group in April, complaining that its concession was inside a national park and encroached on their ancestral Nama land.<\/p>\n
Andrea Pietrafesa, Legal Advisor at the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, in a joint statement with the Nama Traditional Leaders Association, applauded the decision not “to purchase goods produced on land where indigenous rights are violated.”<\/p>\n
RWE said there was no connection between its decision and these complaints.<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12739,"template":"default||default","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-12738","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"German power utility RWE said on Monday that it had withdrawn from Namibia's $10 billion Hyphen green ammonia project, a blow to the southern African nation's ambitions to become a major hydrogen hub.||German power utility RWE said on Monday that it had withdrawn from Namibia's $10 billion Hyphen green ammonia project, a blow to the southern African nation's ambitions to become a major hydrogen hub.","published_date":"2025-09-18 00:00:00||2025-09-18 00:00:00","news_description":"","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/12738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/12738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18195,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/12738\/revisions\/18195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=12738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}