Natura Energy inks N$1 billion agreement with UK company for developing an 81 MW solar plant in Arandis
Local power developer, Natura Energy this week inked a strategic agreement with London-based blue-chip power plant developer and investor, Globeleq Africa Limited to develop and co-own its 81MW TeraSun Energy Solar PV Power Park initiative in Arandis.
The project aims to market and sell across the national transmission grid competitively priced electricity to large power users throughout Namibia and the TeraSun Energy solar power park will be the largest ever built local to date, Natura Energy’s managing director, Ezio Vernetti said Thursday.
“Natura Energy has been developing the TeraSun Energy project completely independently. The strategic agreement signed with Globeleq represents a major boost for the project with the assured injection of significant capital to assure that all activities required to reach commencement of construction will be completed,” he added.
According to Vernetti the new agreement will bring to the project the experience, track record and balance sheet of Globeleq, a company that already has over 1400MW of power generation plants in operation across 13 projects in sub-Saharan Africa, with further projects worth 305MW under construction and 2,000MW in active development.
The TeraSun Energy solar power park, will be situated in the town of Arandis, a location which enjoys amongst the best solar irradiations in the country and with a potential to generate over 227.700 megawatt-hours per annum; enough to power over 68000 average Namibian homes for a whole year.
“This completely private investment will be structured through multiple power purchase agreements with large power users for the supply of energy over durations between 7 and 25 years, according to individual customer requirements,” he added.
Meanwhile, the TeraSun Energy Solar PV Power Park initiative is being developed to operate within the new Modified Single Buyer (MSB) regulatory framework of the Electricity Control Board.
“This new regulation allows independent power producers to sell electricity to large power users locally and internationally across the NamPower transmission network. In the MSB regulatory framework, market players are known as contestable customers and eligible sellers,” he said, adding that contestable customers will be allowed to purchase electricity from independent power producers such as TeraSun Energy via bilateral transactions for up to 30% of their annual energy purchases.
Current planning sets construction commencement date in the third quarter of 2022, he concluded.
