Major solar park on the cards for Arandis

NAMIBIAN power developer Natura Energy this week announced it has signed a strategic agreement with London-based power-plant developer, owner and operator Globeleq Africa Limited to co-develop the 81 MW TeraSun Energy solar photovoltaic power park at Arandis.

The billion dollar project aims to market and sell electricity across the national transmission grid to large power users throughout Namibia, according to Natura Energy’s executive director of business development, Rosemary Shipiki.

It will be the largest solar power project in the country, set up on 120 hectares of land.

Arandis currently has a 5 MW plant.

Shipiki said the agreement brings to the project the immense experience and track record of Globeleq, a company that already has power-generation plants of over 1 400 MW in operation across 28 projects in sub-Saharan Africa, with a further 305 MW under construction, and 2 000 MW in active development.

The TeraSun Energy initiative has been developed to operate within the new modified single-buyer (MSB) regulatory framework of the Electricity Control Board.

This new regulation allows independent power producers (IPPs) to sell electricity to large power users locally and internationally across the NamPower transmission network.

In the MSB regulatory framework, market players such as all the regional electricity distributors (REDs), the City of Windhoek, and all NamPower customers will be allowed to purchase electricity from IPPs such as TeraSun Energy via bilateral transactions for up to 30% of their annual energy purchases.

Shipiki told The Namibian that Namibia leads the region when it comes to creating an enabling environment in the energy sector with the newly established MSB model.

“This opening up of the market to free competition is what motivated our company to take advantage of the opportunity and innovate to provide electricity to our clients at competitive tariffs,” she said.

“Namibia is endowed with excellent solar irradiation, blessed with visionary leadership, and now with an enabling environment resultant from the MSB model regulation we only see opportunities in the exploitation of solar energy.”

The TeraSun project will generate enough sun energy to power over 68 000 average Namibian homes for a whole year.

Shipiki said construction is set to start next year, and will take about a year to complete. It will comprise 148 000 solar panels, using technology that will make the most of solar irradiation at Arandis.

“Arandis has one of the highest solar irradiation levels in Namibia, and because of the many mining companies in the area, Arandis is also Namibia’s highest load centre for electricity demand, thus making the town the ideal location for this project,” she said.

The announcement of the solar park comes shortly after NamPower issued a tender for the construction of a 50 MW power plant at Walvis Bay at an estimated cost of N$1,2 billion.

NamPower generation project senior manager Benedictus Mingeli earlier said the plant is expected to be operational by 2023.

The plant, to be known as Anixas II, will be built on the same premises as the current 22,5 MW emergency Anixas power plant at Walvis Bay.

NamPower wants to generate 70% of the country’s electricity through renewable sources by 2030 to reduce Namibia’s dependence on imported electricity.

It plans to invest N$3,5 billion in renewable energy projects.

Namibia’s current power demand is estimated at more than 500 MW.

NamPower has an installed generation capacity of 459,5 MW through its three operating power stations.

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