Lüderitz resident backs wind-tourism harmony

A Lüderitz resident says there is room for wind energy development and tourism to exist side by side.

Penny Shikunde’s comments follow a photo of a wind turbine behind the iconic manager’s house at the ghost town of Kolmanskop, published in yesterday’s edition of The Namibian.

“There is no problem with wind farm and tourism projects co-existing,” she says.

The turbine forms part of 11 turbines of the InnoVent Diaz wind farm, which is owned and being developed by French company InnoVent and its Namibian subsidiary, InnoSun.

Once commissioned, the wind farm will generate 44 megawatts, which will be added to the national grid.

Shikunde says electricity security has become important for Namibia, particularly at a time when external supply cannot always be guaranteed.

She says while tourism remains a major contributor to Namibia’s gross domestic product and creates jobs, other productive sectors should also be allowed to develop.

Shikunde says the country should avoid placing industries in conflict while they can reasonably co-exist.

“Currently we have the same challenge with green hydrogen. Fishing and diamond industry players feel overlooked and neglected, while priority is given to green hydrogen.”

She says green hydrogen production poses a serious risk to the fishing environment.

The construction of the Diaz wind farm project started in 2023.

In a statement issued by InnoVent yesterday, the company says it will sell electricity to the Namibia Power Corporation (NamPower) via a 25 years power supply agreement.

A number of the turbines were erected by the end of March.

“Since mid-April, the XEMC turbines have entered the testing phase. The InnoVent and InnoSun teams have initiated blade rotations and are conducting wind capture and grid injection tests. These turbines are already supplying electricity to the Namibian grid,” the company says.

Project development head Alex Donne says the farm is expected to produce more than 230 gigawatt hours of green electricity and account for about 5 to 6% of Namibia’s annual electricity consumption.

He says the location of the farm was carefully chosen to have the lowest impact to the sensitive biodiversity in the Tsau-||Khaeb National Park, to enable the project to be economically viable and meet the country’s electricity needs sustainably.

“The development of Diaz wind farm forms part of a greater strategy of NamPower, which the company believes will bring the country closer to achieving 80% energy efficiency by 2028, as well sourcing at least 70% of the country’s energy from renewable energy sources as outlined in the Renewable Energy Policy,” Donne says.

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