Envisaged Wind Farm to boost clean energy generation
A wind farm is in the pipeline and a multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy firm, WSP Africa, has played a pivotal role in bringing about the development of the Diaz Wind Farm in the country.
According to a statement from WSP this week, the wind farm aims to bring an additional 44MW to the national grid, which will also alleviate some of the pressure on the Southern African grid.
Developed by Diaz Wind Power, and a joint venture between the United Africa Group and Quantum Power, the wind farm will be located in Lüderitz and will be the country’s first clean energy project and a major step to harness the full potential of wind resources for the country.
WSP served as the technical advisory to Diaz Wind Power for the development of the wind farm, where the consulting company’s Power team of experts were involved in preparing the minimum functional specifications and tender documents for the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) contractor, as well as the Operations and Maintenance (O&M) agreement at the start of the project. Thereafter, the team was responsible for reviewing and evaluating the EPC contract and O&M agreement proposals, to optimise on and finalise them with the nominated contractors for this project.
Dinesh Buldoo, Director, Transmission and Distribution, WSP, Africa, said, “NamPower, the national power utility company in Namibia, started exploring wind power capability in 1998. At the time the Ministry of Mines and Energy installed wind measurements stationed at Walvis Bay and Lüderitz and in the same year, a feasibility study was launched to assess the viability of developing wind farms in these towns. While the Diaz Wind Farm will be the first in the country, Namibia offers some of the highest wind potential in Africa, considering it is located in the more extreme latitudes away from the negative impacts of atmospheric heating and the earth’s rotation.”
Currently both Lüderitz and Walvis Bay, experience wind speeds of about 7 m/s. Buldoo said measurements at 85.7m high, undertaken in Lüderitz, have predicted a yearly wind speed average reaching 10 m/s, with a stable wind direction. Other areas around Namibia’s coastline that also offer good wind potential include, Henties Bay, Terrace Bay and Mowe Bay.
“Namibia intends on growing this form of renewable energy generation capacity within the country. It is estimated that the country’s potential is 27201 MW and 36 TW/h a year with a relative land use of 824 268 km2,” he added.
“Diaz Wind Farm is certainly a bold step towards embracing wind generation technology. And, while the Namibia’s renewable energy policy is in its final stages, we expect to see a growing number of wind farm projects increasing in size at a utility level coming to ground, especially as the country pursues its ambitions of a 70% renewable energy scenario by 2030,” said Buldoo.
