African Nation Namibia to Tender 50-130MW CSP Project Next Year

• At the recently held SolarPACES Conference, NamPower generation projects head Grant Muller set out the nationwide power firm's now finalized prepare for a CSP project in Namibia, for in between 50 MW as well as 130 MW, with storage space.
• After 4 years of prep work, the nation awaits its first CSP auction in 2022.

Namibia Power Corporation Ltd (NamPower), the national electric power utility company of the African nation Namibia, is planning to release a tender for a 50MW-130MW concentrated solar power (CSP) with storage space project in 2022.

The project is expected to need financial investment of US$ 600mn-US$1bn, with a target appointing date collection for 2025.

The strategies were disclosed by NamPower Generation Projects Head Grant Muller at the current SolarPACES online conference.

The small African nation of Namibia is claimed to have a few of the most effective solar source worldwide with Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) varying as much as 3214 kWh per square meter annually (3,214 kWh/m2a).

Muller stated the project was planned to be developed under a build, own, operate, transfer (BOOT) version under Namibia's new Public Private Partnership (PPP) Act. The picked designer will establish the plant and after that sign a 25-year offtake contract.

Namibia presently has an installed ability of 680MW for its 2.5 million people, with 517MW of this originating from renewable energy sources and 122MW from coal-fired generation. Namibia likewise imports electrical power from neighbouring South Africa's coal-heavy grid.

Namibia currently intends to minimize dependence on imports and also coal and increase durability in its renewable grid. NamPower is agnostic on the core CSP modern technology, except that it needs to be dry cooled down. Muller is hoping the expected tariff would certainly be below 8 cents/kWh (USD) but this would depend on dimension and storage space and also dispatch times. No subsidies are intended.

At the SolarPACES online conference, he kept in mind that ideally, the CSP project should be created to target peak times of need to give the best complementarity to daytime solar PV, and throughout hydropower's completely dry period, which is from April to October, in the Southern hemisphere winter season. So the enhancement of a 2nd dispatchable renewable along with the hydropower, would best round out a renewable grid system.

He explained the imagined policy layout as a hybrid between the very successful MASEN design in Morocco, as well as the REIPPP model in South Africa. Like MASEN, the growth is de-risked by NamPower. which has already located a number of sites with excellent solar source and also over a 3 year duration has gauged the DNI using satellite as well as ground measurement information. By therefore reducing growth expenses Muller anticipates to reduce the power price paid by the customer. The next step is to establish the RfP for 2022, he stated.