• CMB.TECH's Walvis Bay facility — originally a joint venture with Namibia's Ohlthaver & List Group, now wholly owned by CMB.TECH after acquiring the O&L stake in October 2025 — is Africa's first fully integrated green hydrogen hub, combining a 5MWp solar park, 5MW PEM electrolyser and 5.9MWh battery storage in a single off-grid ecosystem inaugurated in September 2025.
• CMB.TECH is already its own first customer, using the hydrogen for dual-fuel trucks, generators and Namibia's first hydrogen-powered freight locomotive, with expansion plans targeting 250MW then 500MW of solar capacity and eventual ammonia export to Europe.

 

The hydrogen projects that make headlines in Africa are usually enormous, years away and full of caveats. The CMB.TECH facility at Farm 58 in Walvis Bay is none of those things. It is small, it is running, and it is producing green hydrogen today.

 

What the facility is and how it works

 

The site brings together three integrated systems: a 5MWp solar park covering 6.5 hectares with around 7,000 panels; a 5MW proton exchange membrane electrolyser that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen using exclusively solar electricity; and a 5.9MWh battery energy storage system that keeps the electrolyser running even when the sun is not at full strength. The entire facility operates off-grid, with no connection to Namibia's national electricity network required.

 

Namibia gets approximately 300 sunny days per year, making Walvis Bay one of the strongest solar resources on the continent. The hydrogen produced at the site is compressed and stored on-site for immediate use.

 

Roy Campe, Chief Technology Officer at CMB.TECH, described the facility as a "Living Lab" for an integrated hydrogen economy. "The facility includes a solar-powered off-grid electrolyser for renewable hydrogen production, a refuelling station for hydrogen-powered vehicles and industrial applications, and an on-site Hydrogen Academy for local talent development," he said.

 

A hub that uses what it makes

 

The most important structural feature of the Walvis Bay project is that CMB.TECH itself is the first customer. Green hydrogen produced at the site currently fuels dual-fuel trucks, generators and off-road equipment — and Namibia's first hydrogen-powered freight locomotive programme is part of the wider plan. A hydrogen-powered harbour vessel, under construction in the Netherlands, will also be deployed at Walvis Bay.

 

This matters because the graveyard of global green hydrogen projects is largely populated by facilities that invested heavily in production without securing an offtaker. CMB.TECH solved that problem by becoming its own buyer from day one.

 

The longer-term plan adds an ammonia terminal at Walvis Bay's North Port — producing marine fuel by combining the hydrogen with nitrogen drawn from the air — and a gigawatt-scale solar hydrogen and ammonia plant at Arandis, deeper into the Namib desert where solar intensity is even higher. Total projected investment across all phases: $3.5 billion.

 

Siemens as the integration layer

 

Siemens provided the integrated electrical, automation and safety infrastructure that coordinates the solar, electrolyser, battery and refuelling systems. Sabine Dall'Omo, CEO of Siemens Sub-Saharan Africa, was direct about what the project demonstrates: "Africa's first fully integrated green hydrogen facility demonstrates that large-scale clean energy production is not a future ambition, but a present-day reality."

 

She added: "The CMB.TECH plant can only deliver on its promise if all technologies operate seamlessly as one. That is where Siemens makes the decisive difference."

 

The human dimension

 

Of the facility's 25 employees, 24 are Namibian, trained through the on-site Hydrogen Academy, which works with local universities and the Namibia Institute for Mining Technology. Walvis Bay Mayor Johannes Shimbilinga said the training programme is "creating a sustainable pipeline of local expertise, positioning Namibia as an exporter of not just green molecules, but also the technical knowledge required to operate and maintain a hydrogen economy."

 

What comes next

 

Campe is unambiguous about the ambition. "The next step is to increase capacity to 250MW, then to 500. We want to turn Namibia into a global energy hub and export energy to Europe and the rest of the world. Today we have 7,000 solar panels. In the future, there could be millions."

 

Source:   Fuel Cells Works