- SPS is leading the development and funding of a N$200 million investment in a 10MW solar plant, which will generate approximately 26 360 MWh of clean renewable energy per year.
- This will be the first wheeling project implemented under NamPower’s Modified Single Buyer (MSB) framework, meaning that the solar plant will not be connected behind the customer’s meter, but at a different location on Nampower’s grid, with the clean energy generated by the solar plant being allocated or ‘wheeled’ to the customer.
Nampower’s MSB framework empowers Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to produce and sell electricity directly to regional electricity distributors, large industrial and mining companies, as well as municipalities. This is an improvement to the previous single-buyer model, where electricity output was restricted to being sold only to NamPower.
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The solar plant is being constructed on Maxwell Farm situated in North Central Namibia, and is set to be operational by the end of 2024. The energy will be injected into NamPower’s brand-new Eldorado substation from where it will be allocated under the MSB framework to B2Gold’s Otjikoto Mine, located approximately 300 km north of Windhoek. B2Gold Corp is a Canadian based gold producer and is Namibia’s leading gold producer, with an estimated gold output of 200,000 ounces in 2023 and a workforce of 976 employees.
Francois van Themaat, CEO of SPS, states, “We are thrilled to be developing this novel project for B2Gold with our Namibian partners – Fortitude and the Oelofse family. I want to thank NamPower and the ECB for their investor-friendly approach and for their assistance in making this project a reality.”
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
