Innovent brings wind energy to Namibia

I was doing my usual news roundup to prepare Windletter when I came across Nabrawind Technologies’ announcement about using their Nabrabase solution for four foundations at the Diaz wind farm in Namibia.

Currently under construction, the Diaz wind farm consists of 11 wind turbines of 4 MW each, totaling 44 MW. The specific model is unknown, but if I had to guess, I’d say it’s from a Chinese OEM.

The project developer and Nabrawind’s end client is, as usual, the French IPP Innovent, which has relied on the solutions from this company based in Navarra for several of its wind farms.

What caught my attention the most about the project, beyond its innovative foundations, was its location. Namibia didn’t strike me as a country with much wind energy development, so I decided to dig deeper.

And indeed, I was right. In a country with 2.6 million inhabitants and electricity access at just around 50%, it’s not surprising that there are only two wind farms:

Ombepo Wind Farm. Source | Innovent

A new addition to these installations is the Diaz wind farm, located south of Lüderitz, close to the Ombepo wind farm (I believe I’ve pinpointed the location of the meteorological mast here).

The Lüderitz area boasts an extraordinary wind resource. According to NamPower, the country’s national utility, in this document, wind speeds average over 9 m/s.

According to Innovent, this resource will enable the wind farm to achieve approximately 5,000 equivalent full-load hours, with an annual production of over 230 GWh. This figure represents between 5% and 6% of Namibia’s total electricity consumption and will significantly reduce the need to import electricity from South Africa (currently accounting for 60–70% of total consumption).

The environmental impact study is available on Innovent’s website.

Returning to the construction of the wind farm, the Nabrabase solution is particularly well-suited for locations like this, with rocky terrain and scarce water and concrete, which can complicate conventional foundation execution.

According to Nabrawind, this system requires 80% less concrete than a standard foundation and significantly less steel. The solution is similar to the one used in the Le Portel wind farm, where a Vensys 3.8-126 turbine was installed.

Construction began in 2023, with commissioning scheduled for July 2025.

Innovent has a strong presence in Namibia, with 26 MW operational since 2015 and a local team of 18 people managing the operation and development of solar and wind assets. The French company also plans to commission a 10 MWp photovoltaic plant in April next year.

Developing, building, and operating assets in a country like Namibia must be challenging, but this is undoubtedly great news for reducing the cost of electricity access by leveraging renewable resources.

Sergio Fdez Munguía

https://windletter.substack.com/p/windletter-97-llevando-la-energia?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1178124&post_id=152225790&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=ohn78&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email