Financial deal seen as key to opening way for Namibian wind farm
A firm which is developing a 92-MW wind energy project in Namibia has signed a financing agree- ment with a Dutch development finance institution, the Nederlandse Financierings Maatsschappij (FMO).
Aeolus Power Generation, a 50:50 joint venture between Dutch company Aeolus Association and Namibia’s United Africa Group, was licensed in April this year to develop a N$1,1-billion wind energy project in the coastal towns of, Luderitz, Oranjemund and Walvis Bay.
The financing agreement with FMO is expected to clear financial hurdles for the project, officials from both companies say.
Aeolus Association representative Leo van Gastel says the energy company is to fund 45% of the project with a grant from the Dutch government.
Already, €14-million has been made available for the first phase of the project, entailing the setting up of 40 turbines, with a capacity to generate 36 MW, at Luderitz.
“This project will deliver the largest kilo- watt-hour output because it has the highest wind speed of all the locations,” Gastel says.
The 40 turbines for the Luderitz project are expected to be shipped from the Netherlands in the last quarter of 2008.
The second and third phases of the project will comprise 40 turbines at Walvis Bay and 22 turbines at Oranjemund, generating 36 MW and about 22 MW respectively.
Gastel says that the project could reduce Namibia’s dependence on imports. “This comes at a time when power supply in Southern Africa has reached critical levels, with neighbouring countries experiencing power outages and scrambling for solutions to the increased demand for electricity in their growing populations and economies.”
Progress has also been made in securing land for setting up the wind farms, and environ- mental-impact assessments have already been completed.
Gastel says that the firm will soon conclude a power purchase agreement as well as another agreement for the setting up of transmission lines with national power utility Nam-Power.
