Namibia Aims to Raise $450 Million to Boost Power Generation

(Bloomberg) — Namibia’s state-owned electricity utility plans to raise $450 million by selling bonds in the country and raising development bank loans to help the southwest African nation boost power generation.

Namibia Power Corp. said it has signed loan agreements totaling 166 million euros ($175 million) with KfW and Agence Francaise de Developpement, the development banks of Germany and France, and is working on a loan of an unspecified size from the World Bank.

It also plans to raise 5 billion Namibian dollars ($275 million) via a bond issue aimed at domestic investors, to be listed on the Namibia Stock exchange in the first quarter of 2025, Managing Director Kahenge Haulofu said in an emailed response to questions.

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He said KfW will lend 66 million euros for a proposed solar park at Rosh Pinah in southern Namibia. AFD has committed 100 million euros for Namibia’s biomass project, which aims to generate energy by burning invasive brush encroaching on the nation’s grasslands.

The southwest African nation is striving to end a longstanding reliance on electricity imports from neighboring South Africa by diversifying the mix from which it generates energy.

The start of that effort has been concentrated on solar technology, which has raised complex issues of how to balance demand on the grid, with peak usage occurring in the evening hours whereas solar provides most power in daytime.

Planned generation capacity includes solar, wind, biomass and the 50-megawatt Anixas II power project at Walvis Bay that will use very low sulfur fuel oil, diesel, or natural gas, NamPower said. Batteries will be installed to store energy for use during peak hours.

The southern Africa nation, which contains some of the best solar potential in the world, is also considering designating midday as off-peak, when it would charge less for electricity. That will “incentivize generators to install battery energy storage to shift energy from daytime to peak hours or consider alternative technology,” NamPower said.

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Namibia is also planning a slate of green hydrogen projects, which generate the fuel by splitting water using electricity from renewable power plants. It also wants to use natural gas resources found off its coast, along with oil discoveries by TotalEnergies SE and Shell Plc, in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

These are some of Namibia’s planned power projects:

• Omburu Solar Plant
  • Capacity: 20 megawatts
  • Commissioned: 2022
• Luderitz Wind IPP Project
  • Capacity: 50 MW
  • Planned operation: Q4 2026
• Khan Solar IPP Project
  • Capacity: 20 MW
  • Planned operation: Q1 2025
• Rosh Pinah Solar Plant
  • Capacity: 70 MW
  • Planned completion: Q2 2026
• Otjikoto Biomass Project
  • Capacity: 40 MW
  • Project completion: Q2 2027

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