Namibia’s capital city, Windhoek is seeking private developers to build a 25 megawatt solar energy facility on a build, own, and operate basis. The Windhoek municipality issued a call for expressions of interest for the development of the project last week. Interested parties have until August 19th, 2021 to submit their proposals. The call for expressions of interest can be accessed here.
According to the latest statistics from the International Renewable Energy Agency, Namibia has around 145 MW of installed solar power at the end of 2020. Namibia’s state-owned electricity utility, NamPower, also announced targets to install at least 220 MW of renewables capacity, including 40 MW of solar by 2030.
Through a joint bilateral arrangement, the government of Namibia and Botswana are planning to develop a 5 GW mega solar plant that will meet both countries’ electricity needs as well as export excess power to regional markets through the South African Power Pool (SAPP). The project is being facilitated by the U.S government through the U.S’s Power Africa initiative. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris gave the project a nod at the Leaders’ Summit on Climate.
Windhoek to utilise new regulations
Namibia is liberalising its energy sector. In April 2019, the Namibian government adopted the modified single buyer (MSB) rules, new electricity regulations that allow transmission of electricity between consumers and Independent Power Producers (IPPs), to transact with each other directly for the supply of electricity. The new regulations deviate from existing Single Buyer (SB) model where the state owned utility NamPower was the single buyer of IPP electricity.
The MSB rules would enable big electricity consumers to procure 30% of their electricity needs from independent power producers (IPP) or generate the power themselves.
The Windhoek municipality is taking advantage of the new regulations to build its own generation capacity as well as partner with private players. The 25 MW solar plant Windhoek tendering for will see the developer not only develop but also own and operate the facility on behalf of the city for 25 years after which the partner will transfer ownership back to the city.
