Wind Energy

International consortium to build $150 million wind energy project in Namibia

An international consortium would build a wind power park near the Namibian coastal town of Luderitz at a cost of about $150 million, which will initially add 44 megawatts of generation capacity.

Namibian United Africa Group will hold a 60% share of the wind turbines project, while Japanese trading house Sojitz Corp will hold 20% and the Korean Midland Power Corporation will hold the other 20 %, the group informed Global Offset Experts.

The wind farm, which is in a pre-feasibility phase, is to be financed through a combination of debt and equity. The wind farm should be feeding electricity into the national grid by 2013, increasing the southern African country’s power capacity by more than 5%.

United African Group is a Namibian private equity firm with interests in Commercial real estate, hotels, financial services and energy.

This is UAG’s second attempt to bring wind power to Namibia. In its first effort, the group partnered with Dutch businessman Leo van Gastel in 2007, but a lack of funding led to the would-be project—that would have generated sufficient energy to meet 25% of national energy needs—to ultimately be scrapped.

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