SMA Altenso was named as finalist of the The smarter E AWARD 2026 in the category "Outstanding Projects" for the application "Africa's First Fully Integrated Green Hydrogen Plant".
In Namibia, Africa’s first integrated facility for off-grid, solar-powered production of green hydrogen has been realized. The project combines a 6.5-hectare solar park, a 5.9 MWh battery storage system, and a 5 MW electrolyzer into an industrial mini-grid. Given a national power grid of only around 700 MW, the facility generates all of its energy independently and converts it directly into hydrogen. A medium-voltage power station manages the interaction between PV, storage, and the rectifier system. Using digital models, solar generation, hydrogen demand, and auxiliary loads are optimized several days in advance to ensure efficient operation. The project demonstrates how solar energy and local mini-grids can be effectively integrated with the production of green hydrogen.