CHAMWE KAIRA
Dongfang Electric of China has expressed interest in constructing and supplying equipment for the planned green hydrogen projects in the country.
Xiong Chao, Deputy General Manager of M&E Division II, told Observer Money that most of its business is construction, manufacture and supply of equipment for energy projects such as hydrogen projects.
“We are one of the biggest power equipment manufacturers, if there are some hydrogen projects, that are interested to work with us, we would be interested to work with them and partner on these hydrogen projects.”
Chao said the company has worked on many hydrogen energy projects in China. “We have many different energy projects in Africa, like in Angola, Tanzania Ethiopia and Kenya. We have done many projects like solar projects and hydrogen projects. We export our equipment to more than 80 countries, our installation capacity is more than 85 gigawatts. We are one of Chinas biggest manufactures and EPC contractor,” said Chao.
NamPower has awarded Dongfang Electric to construct the 40 MW Otjikoto Biomass Power Project. Chao said the project was ‘very important and meaningful project.’
“It is the biggest biomass project in Namibia. We have done different biomass projects in different countries. We are very grateful for this opportunity. We would like this to be a showcase project in Namibia. We would like to do more of this kind of projects.”
Dongfang is one of the largest Chinese state-owned enterprises and a pioneer in sustainable and green energy industry in solar, hydro, gas, wind and biomass with total capacity over 5GW.
Dongfang has been involved in global market for several decades, and constantly navigating green energy development with advanced products, solutions and services.
NamPower managing director, Simson Kahenge Haulofu said the Otjikoto power station will enable NamPower to cost-effectively provide baseload electricity and will contribute to the expansion of power generation for the country. The project is expected to reduce Namibia’s reliance on imported electricity.
“In addition, the project will make a lasting impact on the local farming and agricultural communities as Namibia is challenged by massive bush encroachment that affects over 26 million hectares of farmland, leading to billions of economic losses,” he said.
The project was funded by the French Development Agency that facilitated a loan of up to 100 million Euro for the construction and bringing into operation of the power station, the mitigation action facility is providing a grant of 25 million Euro towards the capital costs of the power station and for capacity building of the local biomass value chain, the French Fund for Global Environment is contributing three million Euro for environmental research and extending the project benefits to vulnerable communities, while, the government, through the Ministry of Finance and Public Enterprises contributed N$400 million to the project.
The long-term fuel suppliers (wood chips) will be Sactos Investment CC, PHP Interactive Information Technology Solutions CC, Forestry Plant and Equipment Sales CC, Nexus Civils (Pty) Ltd, Africa Biomass Company (Pty) Ltd, Ultra Trading CC, Special Supermarket (Pty) Ltd, Omuriro Biomass Investments (Pty) Ltd, and the Transworld Cargo (Pty) Ltd.
