Making strides in
RENEWABLE ENERGY
During the course of Expo 2020 Dubai, Namibia will be featuring key focus sectors. Among those, the country will be highlighting its vast renewable energy generation potential which may afford our generation with the opportunity to produce green hydrogen at unparalleled scales, thereby supporting global objectives to decarbonise the planet.
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limate change and global warming are perhaps among the very top global pressures that our and future generations are faced with. Some believe we are well past the point of no return, others believe we are fast approaching it, and then there are those who choose to live in a warm and calm bubble of disbelief. In Africa, where we live more closely to nature than people on any other continent, we do not have the luxury of sticking our proverbial heads in the sand and ignoring the very real fact that climate change mitigation should be at the very top of our priority lists. And though, ironically, we are not the main culprits, especially as a sparsely populated country like Namibia, we could very well be the solution. Enter Namibia’s commitment, advances and future hopes for being a leader in renewable energy in Africa. Harnessing Nature Namibia has an incredible competitive advantage when it comes to the production of renewable energy from solar, wind, biomass and hydro sources. With well over 90% sunny days, strong winds along our Atlantic coastline, an unfortunate abundance of encroacher/invasive bush species in our central bushlands and mighty rivers along our northern borders, we are well-positioned to harness nature in the most sustainable way for clean energy production. The small population size of our nation also plays to our advantage in this regard. Namibia’s peak power consumption is approximately only 640 MW per
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annum. And yet, we still import almost 40% of our electricity from neighbouring South Africa. South Africa in turn is Africa’s largest greenhouse gas emitter. To put our country in perspective, Namibia emits five times less carbon dioxide per capita than both South Africa and Germany. We emit ten times less than the USA, and 23 times less than Qatar. Harnessing the sun – Namibia’s high solar irradiation values, which clearly stand out even by African standards and rank among the highest in the world, make us an obvious candidate for solar-generated energy. Harnessing water – Ruacana Hydroelectric Power Station on the Kunene River, Namibia’s northern border, has a generation capacity of 347 MW. Unfortunately, the power station can only be operated at maximum capacity during the rainy season, but it still meets 32% of the country’s total power requirement. Harnessing bush – In terms of bioenergy, the use of wood from invasive bush encroachment offers a potential source of biomass plants. Namibia has over 30 million hectares of woody biomass which could, if harvested correctly, power southern Africa with sustainable energy. Harnessing the wind – High, constant wind speeds are found along Namibia’s southern coastline, especially near Lüderitz, which offer ideal conditions for the construction of wind power plants.
