Namibia secures funding for biomass station

Namibia has secured over $100 million (€92.1 million) to support the construction of a 40MW biomass plant.
NamPower signed a loan agreement, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract, as well as woodchip fuel supply contracts on 24 May.
The signing marked the official commencement of the execution phase of the Otjikoto Biomass Power Station Project (OBPS).
The French Development Agency provided a loan of up to €100 million for the construction and operationalisation of the power station.
The Mitigation Action Facility is providing a grant of €25 million towards the capital costs of the power station, and for capacity-building of the local biomass value chain.
In addition, the French Fund for Global Environment is contributing €3 million euros for environmental research, and extending the project benefits to vulnerable communities.
"Once commissioned, the station will be used to facilitate, support and preserve power quality in the electricity grid by providing ancillary services such as synchronising torque, grid inertia and reactive power control," said NamPower managing director Simson Haulofu.
"This will strengthen the grid to allow further integration of intermittent renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.”