Energy independence can be reached
Chief Executive Officer of InnoSun Energy Holdings, Gregoire Verhaeghe at the Sustainable Development in Namibia Conference said last week, that they plan to work together with other companies, especially with the government, to come up with solutions to reach energy independence in the country.
Verhaeghe said Namibia receives more sunlight than anywhere else on earth and therefore it would be unthinkable not to harness this solar energy.
“We want to help organisations who help the poorest people by providing them with solar panels and reducing their energy expenditure,” he said.
Verhaeghe said that some of the objectives they have are to create more employment for the locals to empower them, to have and use solar panels that are locally produced and to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
“We at InnoSun together with local partners have established the Omburu Solar power plant, in Omaruru, that covers an area of 16 hectares with more than 33, 000 panels, 100 inverters and 67 tracker motors and the capacity of the park is 4.5mw, which will generate about 13,500 kwh of electricity per year at an investment of N$120 million,” he added.
Furthermore, Verhaeghe said that even though they face difficulties like there are no independent power producers and that there are few regulations that have never been used, they look forward to the future because there is still a lot that can be done.
InnoSun is busy developing 15 solar power plants across the country each with a capacity 5 to 20mw and which are ready to be constructed and they are also busy developing 4 scalable wind farms with excellent wind resources which are also ready to be constructed. “With all this projects that we are busy with we have received strong support for financial institutions and also from local industries and mines,” he said.
He further reiterated that renewable energies are a real solution to provide electricity independence to Namibia, as projects are ready, investors and lenders are willing to invest, technology has improved and electricity produced is competitive.
“This will lead to the industrialization of the country, poverty eradication, stability in electricity prices and a secured electricity supply,” he said.
