Niël Terblanché
Nexentury, the energy subsidiary of the Ohlthaver and List Group will invest more than N$1 billion in the construction of a 100 Mega Watt solar power plant near Windhoek.
The announcement by the O&L Group follows shortly on the heels of the Electricity Control Board’s (ECB) approval of Nexentury’s generation and export licenses. Both licenses are valid for 25 years and Nexentury indicated that Phase 1 of the project will be operational by July next year.
Nexentury’s Managing Director, Bernd Walbaum said the more than N$1 billion project is aligned with the parent company’s mission statement, ‘Creating a future, enhancing life’.
“This project promises to be a positive contribution to the generation of renewable energy in the country and speaks of our commitment to expanding clean and sustainable energy solutions,” he said.
According to Walbaum, the plant is planned to be connected to one of NamPower’s largest substations.
“The electricity generated is intended to be used locally by industrial energy users such as mining companies, Regional Electricity Distributers and Nampower as well as part of it being exported to the Southern African Power Pool,” he added.
Walbaum shared his enthusiasm for progress on the project and said: “This is a most exciting project we are embarking on as we expand clean energy supply in Namibia and beyond our borders. This project promises to be a positive contribution to the generation of renewable energy in the country and speaks to our commitment to expanding clean and sustainable energy solutions.”
Nexentury was recently granted all necessary permits and licenses to build Germany’s largest floating solar plant of 15MW on a lake in the central part of Germany.
The company is a vertically integrated developer of renewable energy projects and is active in Namibia, South Africa and Botswana as well as West Africa and Europe. The company offers engineering, procurement, construction, operation and maintenance services and has various exciting projects in the pipeline which include the development of solar plants to power the production of green hydrogen.
