The Worldwide Vitality Company (IEA) has launched its ‘Renewable Vitality Alternatives Report for Namibia’ on Tuesday at Africa Vitality Week: Put money into African Energies 2024 convention.
The report explores Namibia’s alternatives for renewable vitality and the way it can assist the nation’s growth imaginative and prescient. The continued roll-out of photo voltaic, wind and inexperienced hydrogen vitality initiatives wouldn’t solely decrease vitality prices within the nation – that are at the moment the very best electrical energy prices in Southern Africa – however it could additionally scale back its import dependency whereas rising vitality safety.
Namibia at the moment imports round 60% to 70% of its whole baseload. In the meantime, almost 45% of Namibians nonetheless lack entry to electrical energy. “With rural communities being underserved, this report highlights the significance of a decentralized vitality strategy to bridge our vitality hole,” Tom Alweendo, Namibia’s Minister of Mines and Vitality, famous on the launch of the report.
The primary of its form for Namibia, the report represents a brand new chapter within the nation’s renewable vitality journey. “By bringing collectively world experience and Namibia’s distinctive vitality panorama, we introduced collectively dependable information and evaluation, which gives insights that might be priceless for us as coverage makers, and for you as business gamers,” mentioned Alweendo.
He added that the report is for use as a software to broaden world understanding into the nation’s vitality sector. Backed by strong insurance policies to assist harness sources, renewable vitality will play a central position in driving worth creation and industrialization. “Namibia is positioned to develop into a pacesetter in renewable vitality, due to our extraordinary photo voltaic irradiance and wind circumstances. The report gives a roadmap to harnessing these sources to satisfy the formidable goal of attaining 70% of renewable vitality by 2030,” he mentioned.
Such progress, he highlighted, wouldn’t solely make Namibia a regional chief, however would additionally place the nation as an exporter of unpolluted vitality.
IEA Deputy Govt Director, Mary Burce Warlick, highlighted that Namibia additionally has an formidable inexperienced hydrogen technique and has been taking a number one position within the renewable hydrogen area. “The prime quality of the renewable sources, mixed with ample out there land for large-scale undertaking growth can facilitate aggressive manufacturing of renewable hydrogen,” she mentioned.
Nevertheless, because the nation at the moment lacks a home marketplace for hydrogen, all preliminary manufacturing would must be exported. Supply to worldwide markets would require delivery hydrogen within the type of ammonia, which might necessitate large-scale investments in port infrastructure and the event of ammonia dealing with experience.
Integrating renewable vitality into the nation’s mining sector, which contributes 14% to its gross home product, would additionally improve the competitiveness of Namibia’s merchandise in world markets. “This stays one in every of our most significant sectors – by integrating wind and photo voltaic vitality into mining operations, we will scale back operational prices and decrease emissions, making these sources extra aggressive for the worldwide market,” Alweendo mentioned.
Alweendo concluded, “Our dedication to renewable vitality is obvious. By grounding our insurance policies in prime quality information evaluation, we’re displaying that our strategy to renewable vitality is each efficient and accountable to the wants of our folks.”
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Vitality Chamber.