Erastus Angula hat schon mit allem Möglichen Geld verdient: Touristenführungen, Lokalnachrichten, mit der Liveübertragung von Sportereignissen und Beerdigungszeremonien im Internet. Letzteres begann während der Corona-Pandemie, als viele Menschen von ihren Angehörigen nicht mehr Abschied nehmen konnten. Vor Kurzem kratzte der findige Namibier mit Freunden Geld zusammen und kaufte einen gebrauchten Kleintransporter. Lieferdienste wollen sie anbieten, wenn der „Startschuss zum grünen Wasserstoff fällt“, erzählt er, „zu dem Projekt, das die Deutschen bauen wollen“. So sagt man in Lüderitz.
Das Städtchen liegt an der Küste im Südwesten Namibias. Touristen reisen dorthin, um Fachwerkhäuser zu sehen, die Felsenkirche mit einem von Kaiser Wilhelm II. gespendeten Altarfenster zu besichtigen und Schilder wie „Kirchgasse“ aus der deutschen Kolonialzeit zu fotografieren. Sonst ist nicht viel los. Lüderitz ist einer der Orte, in dem sich die Bewohner erfolgreich dem schnellen Tempo der restlichen Welt widersetzen und am liebsten in Ruhe gelassen werden.
Zehn Milliarden Euro sollen investiert werden
Doch neuerdings tut sich etwas in dem felsigen Postkartenidyll: Beträchtliche Öl- und Gasvorkommen wurden vor der Küste entdeckt. Namibia könnte dadurch zu einem führenden Produzenten von fossilen Brennstoffen auf der Welt werden. Die Vorbereitungen sind in vollem Gange. Im „Desert Deli“, dem zentralen Treffpunkt der Stadt, gehen Beschäftigte der Energiekonzerne tagtäglich aus und ein. Das französische Unternehmen Total subventioniert die Flüge einer privaten Fluggesellschaft von Windhuk nach Lüderitz.
Für weitaus mehr Gesprächsstoff sorgt ein anderes Vorhaben, das die fossilen Brennstoffe verdrängen und dem Klima nutzen soll. Etwas weiter im Landesinneren plant ein Konsortium namens Hyphen unter der Federführung des deutschen Unternehmens Enertrag die größte Grüner-Wasserstoff-Anlage Namibias. Zehn Milliarden Euro sollen investiert werden, das ist fast so viel wie die Wirtschaftsleistung des ganzen Landes und für viele Besucher im „Desert Deli“ eine Summe, die sie spontan nicht glauben wollen.
Deutschland und andere Länder setzen große Hoffnungen auf den Wasserstoff, der mithilfe von erneuerbaren Energien erzeugt wird und daher das Etikett „grün“ trägt. Mehr als 1000 Besucher aus aller Welt kamen kürzlich zur ersten Afrikanischen Wasserstoffkonferenz in Windhuk. Ranghohe Beamte aus Deutschland flogen ein, die namibische Vizepräsidentin, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, eröffnete die Konferenz. Von einem Meilenstein für Namibia, für die Wirtschaft, die Energieerzeugung, das Klima und für die Beziehungen zur restlichen Welt sprachen die Referenten sinngemäß.
Den 30 Jahre alten Angula trifft man nach Feierabend in einer Kneipe in Amilema, einem Armenviertel von Lüderitz. Die Stimmung ist bestens, im Fernsehen läuft ein Rugbyspiel. „15.000 ist die magische Zahl“, ruft er über die lärmenden Fans hinweg. So viele temporäre Arbeitsplätze hat das Hyphen-Konsortium in der Bauphase angekündigt, ungefähr so viele Menschen leben in Lüderitz. 3000 dauerhafte Jobs sollen entstehen. Es sei eine Gelegenheit, die man nur einmal im Leben habe, ist er überzeugt. Deswegen kämen gerade vor allem junge Menschen aus allen Landesteilen in die Stadt. In Amilema sei es schon enger geworden.
Es geht um Tausende neue Arbeitsplätze
Keiner weiß, wann es genau losgeht, keiner weiß, welche Dienstleistungen und Qualifikationen letztlich benötigt werden. Aber alle warten auf den Start. „Wir müssen bereit sein“, sagt Angula, der Informatik studiert hat. Als die Öl- und Gaskonzerne neulich Mitarbeiter suchten, konnten Bewerber in einem Hotel Lebensläufe abgeben. Er hatte zwei Tage zu spät davon erfahren.
Namibia ist auf dem Papier ein Land mit mittlerem Einkommen, doch in Amilema fühlt man sich eher wie in einem Entwicklungsland. Einfache Häuschen scheinen sich auf den Felsen vor den starken Windböen zu ducken. Mit Südafrika gehört Namibia zu den Ländern, in denen die Kluft zwischen Arm und Reich besonders tief ist. Mehr als jeder zweite jüngere Namibier ist arbeitslos. Als ein Staatskonzern jüngst eine Putzstelle in Windhuk ausschrieb, meldeten sich 400 Bewerber, viele hatten einen Hochschulabschluss.
Phil Balhao is known for lending a hand when a water pipe has broken or when there is another emergency. However, the mayor of Lüderitz admits that he is a little uneasy about the fuss surrounding oil, gas and green hydrogen. The town’s population is expected to more than double within five to ten years. Some see Lüderitz on the way to becoming a new Dubai. The first steps are already being planned: a shopping center, a private hospital, a truck depot, warehouses and workshops.
Balhao has no idea where the many new residents will be housed. In Namibia, three million people live in an area more than twice the size of Germany. The south is particularly sparsely populated. Despite this, the city only has limited areas available for development. There is talk of satellite towns. However, the desert begins as soon as the town leaves the city. The mayor also does not want to create exclusive enclaves for the employees of the energy companies. “We have to take everyone with us,” he says.
It’s actually a long way from being a Dubai. Some of the half-timbered houses have seen better days, and no trains leave the station since the line was closed due to several derailments. The nearest specialist is 500 kilometers away. The Lüderitz Waterfront Development Company is currently converting the “Old Power Station”, an old power station dating back to 1910, into a conference and business center with restaurants and a fitness studio with a sea view. One of the largest maritime museums on the continent opened on Wednesday, and a branch of the Technical University of Namibia is planned.
Diamonds, fish, hydrogen
President Hage Geingob, who died in February, had chosen green hydrogen as a central part of a new development strategy for the country. From the mayor’s point of view, the national government should therefore also support Lüderitz. “A small city administration like ours cannot handle such a big challenge alone. We need support from all corners and ends.”
It probably doesn’t help that four of the seven members of the city administration belong to the national opposition. The mayor, however, describes the close ties to Germany as a stroke of luck. The German Society for International Cooperation is currently starting a five million euro consultancy project for urban development. Lüderitz also has a partner municipality of the same name in Saxony-Anhalt. The pressure is great, says Balhao. “The whole world is watching this project and us.”
Lüderitz has had different experiences with boom phases. The first was triggered by the accidental discovery of a diamond more than a hundred years ago. On the way from the airport to the town, you pass Kolmanskop, a ghost town that has adapted to the color of the desert-like surroundings and is almost unrecognizable from a distance. In its heyday, many of its residents reveled in luxury. But the intoxication did not last long. When the diamonds in the ground ran out, they left the settlement to the sandstorms and the scorching sun, along with the bowling alley, gymnasium and ice cream factory.
In the 1960s, fishing companies from South Africa moved north. The beginning of sanctions against the apartheid government played a role. At the time, Lüderitz was a small town without a mayor, without skilled workers, without any significant infrastructure, but with a port. This time, the newcomers stayed. To this day, the fishing industry is the most important employer.
On this Sunday afternoon, everyone in the “Desert Deli” has their own opinion about what will happen next in the city. There are the long-established Lüderitz residents who think the hype surrounding green hydrogen is a new-fangled “hype”. He will only believe it when he sees something, grumbles an oyster farmer. “So much money, so much effort and so much energy, just to get climate-friendly electricity flowing in Germany?” he asks, shaking his head.
The owner of the deli is worried about the tourism industry. Oil and gas companies have bought up lots of properties and booked guesthouses for months. Tour groups are now finding it hard to find rooms. If thousands of accommodations are needed for employees of the green hydrogen project soon, it will be even more difficult. A few days ago, the private airline also canceled regular flights to and from Windhoek until the oil and gas industry needs flights again.
Memorial in danger
So far, all that can be seen of Hyphen are off-road vehicles and the lettering on the “Old Power Station”, where the consortium has rented offices. Inside, work is underway at full speed because time is of the essence. According to the current plan, the final investment decision is to be made in mid-2026, and exports are to begin a few years later. The consortium is currently looking for investors and is hoping for purchase guarantees from countries such as Germany or South Korea that are prepared to pay price premiums for green hydrogen, at least initially.
Jan-Barend Scheepers knows a lot about renewable energies. The Namibian with the hipster beard installed the three wind turbines that rotate on the outskirts of Lüderitz for his former employer. He actually wanted to continue his career abroad afterward, but the prospect of such a large hydrogen project motivated him to stay and join Hyphen. “Making the impossible possible in hard-to-reach places” is what he likes, he says. The opportunities are gigantic, and the conditions for renewable energies in this area are optimal.
The project is indeed of considerable size. The Namibian government designated 4,000 square kilometers in the first tender. They are located in the Tsau Khaeb National Park, the former diamond restricted area. Large-scale solar and wind power plants are to be built there, which will provide the electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen using an electrolyzer. The water is to be pumped into the park from a planned seawater desalination plant, and the hydrogen produced will then be transported in the opposite direction to the coast, where “green” ammonia will be produced and shipped all over the world. As a Namibian, Scheepers says he is very proud “that we are setting something like this up in this country.”
Not all of his compatriots see it that way. Hyphen has to do a lot of convincing. Representatives of the Nama communities have expressed concerns. One of the darkest chapters of the German colonial era in what was then German South West Africa took place in the very place where a German company now wants to set the course for a more climate-friendly future. And it is precisely near the port that the “Shark Island” is located, where the Germans once built a concentration camp in which many Nama died. A small memorial commemorates this.
Environmentalists are alarmed
The descendants of the victims believe that the peace and dignity of the place will be threatened if the state-owned company Namport expands the Lüderitz port. This has been planned for a long time, and the many energy projects are now providing the impetus. A separate deep-water port is to be built in a neighboring bay for the green hydrogen project. It is controversial whether the operation of this port will be noticeable on Shark Island. Namport says that they are aware of the importance of the place and the memorial. Investigations are underway and the affected communities are being consulted.
Environmentalists, on the other hand, criticize the choice of location in a national park. An umbrella organization of environmental organizations wrote in a widely circulated report that “green” hydrogen does not actually deserve to be called “green.” “Red” is more appropriate because the biodiversity in the park is endangered during production. The German colonial power once cordoned off an area larger than Hesse in order to secure access to the suspected diamond deposits. The park has been largely untouched since 1908. This has led to a unique flora with more than 1,000 species. Some plants can only be found there.
The many concerns are being taken very seriously, says the Hyphen project manager. “We cannot make any mistakes on such important issues.” With an eye to environmental protection, areas with protected plants or water sources will be avoided and the focus will be on parts of the park that are not a concern. Extensive environmental impact assessments are being carried out for this purpose. However, some environmentalists are already looking beyond the Hyphen project. They fear that the entire national park could one day be designated as an industrial zone and that ammonia and other factories could line up like unsightly pearls along the coast.
Beyond Lüderitz, the buzzword “neo-colonialism” is also cropping up in social media and columns. Political commentator Rui Tyitende sees many questions in this context. “Is Namibia actually benefiting from this?” is a fundamental one. Or: “Are rich countries using an African country as a guinea pig to achieve their climate goals and find alternatives to Russian gas?” It is not helpful that the government has not published the contracts with Hyphen and other companies, says the political scientist. “We are just spectators in a big game.”
Where the much-discussed billion-dollar project is to be built, eleven masts over 100 meters high are currently towering into the deep blue sky. A whirring sound can be heard while the sun and wind intensity is measured. Until recently, the Ministry of the Environment wanted to open the national park as a “new jewel” for sustainable tourism. But not much came of the plans. The pioneers of green hydrogen like to talk about an “unpainted canvas”. This is true for this part of the national park. The only traces left by humans are the masts, a power line, an unused railway track and a long tire track in the sand.
Like most Lüderitz residents, Erastus Angula has never been to the park. You still need a permit to go there. Some of his friends think the much-discussed project is a phantom or a government trick to get votes, he says. He is confident, even if he shares some concerns. But life cannot go on without prospects for the future. His van is waiting in a garage in Windhoek.
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