In the foothills of the Namib Desert, even the good rains of 2025 have barely left a trace. Only a few mountains offer a contrast to the grayish-brown desert landscape. But it is here, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) northeast of the country's largest port, Walvis Bay, that Namibia's latest contribution to the global reduction of greenhouse gas emissions lies.

Near the town of Arandis, 44,000 solar panels gleam in the Namibian sun, which offers ideal conditions.

"On average, we have 30 hours of closed cloud cover a year," explained Johannes Michels, managing director of Hylron, a company that began producing the first green hydrogen in Namibia in late March.

The "Oshivela" project is Namibia's first modern ironworks. But unlike conventional or "gray" ironworks, Oshivela produces "green iron" because it uses power sourced through renewable energy.

According to Michels, this will make Namibia "the first country in the world to produce iron industrially without CO2 emissions."

The idea of Namibia's late President Hage Geingob to transform the Namibian economy using hydrogen is beginning to be realized. The country aims to industrialize and create urgently needed jobs to curb the official unemployment rate of around 37%. Several energy initiatives have been developed in recent years, notably the Hyphen project in the Tsau/Khaeb National Park in southern Namibia.

From 2028, it is hoped that some 1 million tons of green ammonia will be produced annually, primarily for export to Europe and Asia.

But the flagship project has attracted both attention and criticism. The Namibian Chamber of Environment (NCE) fears irreversible damage to the highly sensitive ecosystem of the national park. Hyphen rejects the accusations and a comprehensive social and environmental impact study has been announced.

While the large Hyphen project is still a dream of the future, the solar field at HyIron is already supplying up to 25 megawatts of electricity. The energy is used to fuel two electrolysers, which split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

Electricity flows into a rotary kiln, where iron ore from South........

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