The Government says it is still looking to craft the relevant sectoral legislation pertaining to regulating and licensing of the envisioned green hydrogen sector.
Presidential advisor and Green Hydrogen commissioner James Mnyupe said authorities through the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Ministry of Justice are in the process of drafting regulations that, if approved, will guide the establishment of a thriving Green Hydrogen industry.
“As it stands there is no body regulating or serving as the licensing authority for green hydrogen, however, the Ministry of Mines is busy with such regulations, and it is expected of next year to have something in place,” he told The Brief.
“All the applicable licences needed to install relevant components of green hydrogen related infrastructure will have to be applied for through existing authorities. For example, a generation licence from the ECB will be needed before putting up various generating assets,” he added.
His remarks come after the national power regulator, the Electricity Control Board (ECB) said it does not license green hydrogen, but only an electricity generation plant that feeds the GH.
“However, there has been a lot of discussion with potential green hydrogen investors who want to set up electricity generation plants for their hydrogen plants,” said ECB’s General Manager for Economic Regulation Pinehas Mutota.
Mutota went on to explain that “in accordance with the Electricity Act No. 4 of 2007, the ECB will only license operations that involve electricity generation (solar and wind) and transmission, such as network connecting the electricity plants to the green hydrogen processing plants, and not the green hydrogen project itself.”
He reiterated that, the ECB is mandated to license electricity generation and transmission operations, since both activities will be carried out under the green hydrogen projects, however, the ECB will only license those operations as contained in the Electricity Act No 4 of 2007.
In addition, Mutota said the board is also busy drafting the Electricity Bill and the Namibia Energy Regulatory Authority (NERA) Bill, which will give birth to a new Regulator. The draft has been submitted to the legal drafters to commence the promulgation process.
“Further developments are awaited. Once promulgated, the ECB will embark on a public sensitisation and awareness raising exercise to inform its stakeholders on the completion of the transformation to NERA,” he stated.
This comes as Namibia is also expected to finalise a tax regime for its burgeoning green hydrogen sector by the end of the year, which will play a crucial role in determining the amount that players in the sector will pay, with the regulations guiding taxation around green hydrogen to be included in the proposed Synthetic Fuels Act, which will govern all things related to green hydrogen and other synthetic fuels once it is finalised.
