Namibia To Have Its First Biomass Power Station Soon

28 May 2024

Namibia's state-owned electricity utility NamPower has set its long-held plan in motion to construct a 40-megawatt biomass power station, which will be fired by wood chips from harvested invader bush species. 

The power station will be constructed near Tsumeb in north-central Namibia close to NamPower's Otjikoto substation.

A Chinese company will build it under an EPC contract (engineering, procurement and construction). 

Construction work will start in mid-2024 and take about 30 months.

 

“NamPower is the owner of the project and will start operating the biomass plant from 2027,” the managing director of the power utility, Kahenge Haulofu stated at the contract signing ceremony on 24 May 2024. The project will cost a total of N$2.64 billion, of which 2,3 billion N$ are reserved for construction.

The new “Otjikoto” power station is expected to generate 40 megawatt (MW) of electricity supplied by two units of 20 MW each.

NamPower project manager Tangeni Tshivute said at the contract signing that approximately 300 direct jobs would be created during the construction period. “Potentially an additional 1,000 jobs will be added through suppliers and related activities,” he said.

The biomass will be sourced within a 100 km radius in compliance with FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) principles and using only 12.8 percent of the available harvested area.

Bush encroachment is a problem in Namibia, especially in farming areas. However, challenges also bring opportunities, and many farmers have in recent years started thinning their encroached areas and produce charcoal for barbecues, which is mostly exported to Europe and the United Kingdom. This work has also created hundreds of jobs.

Since an area of about 28 million hectares in Namibia is thickly covered by invader bush species, there is sufficient biomass for decades to produce charcoal – and since recently also biochar, used in agriculture – and to feed a biomass power station.

NamPower also signed supply contracts for wood chips made from invader bush species. The biomasss plant will require 188,000 tons wood chips per annum and supply contracts for a total of 188 million N$ were signed.      

According to NamPower's MD Haulofu, the Namibian government contributes 400 million N$ through the Ministry of Finance to the project cost. Some 100 million Euro is provided as a loan from the French Development Agency.

“25 million Euro come as a grant from the Mitigation Action Facility for capital costs and capacity building of the local biomass value chain,” said Haulofu.
The French Global Environment Fund is providing three million Euro for environmental research regarding the biomass power station. 

Brigitte Weidlich