German development agency to provide grant for Namibia energy storage project

The German development agency KfW has signed a $22m grant agreement with the state-owned Namibia Power Corporation (NamPower) for a large-scale electricity storage project in the Erongo region of Namibia

The German development agency KfW has signed a $22m grant agreement with the state-owned Namibia Power Corporation (NamPower) for a large-scale electricity storage project in the Erongo region of Namibia.

The electricity storage system will be installed in Omburu, a town in the Erongo region. NamPower is expected to contribute 20 per cent of the total cost of the project.

The storage project will connect to Namibia’s national grid from the Umburu substation. The storage project will play an important part of stabilising Namibia’s grid and providing a back-up solution in case of failures of existing generation facilities.

The project has also been designed to reduce the cost of importing electricity through the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP). The batteries will store electricity during off-peak hours, when the MWh cost is low, and feed the electricity back into the grid during peak hours.

The storage project will also play a crucial role in stabilising the grid as more intermittent renewable energy resources are integrated into Namibia’s grid.

Namibia currently has an installed capacity of 680MW for its 2.5 million people, with 517MW of this coming from renewable energy resources and 122MW from coal-fired generation. Namibia also imports electricity from neighbouring South Africa

Energy & Utilities reported in December that NamPower was planning to issue a tender for a 50MW-130MW concentrated solar power (CSP) with storage project in 2022

The project is expected to require investment of $600m-$1bn, with a target commissioning date set for 2025.