Emesco to invest N$2bn in solar exports
Schonau announced as conditional SAPP member
Schonau's membership is one of only four awarded for the first time since April, allowing access to the market for five years.
Emesco Energy Namibia plans to invest approximately N$2 billion into exporting solar energy to neighbouring countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) for the next 25 years.
Schonau Solar Energy is a 125 megawatt (MW) solar farm located near Warmbad specifically developed for power exports.
Last week, the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) announced that Schonau has been officially accepted as a conditional member. As a result, the project has been granted access to the regional electricity market.
Schonau's membership is one of only four awarded for the first time since April, allowing access to the market for five years.
The announcement was made during a conference on access to the SAPP and the Namibian modified single-buyer market.
This market allows independent power producers and certain large-scale customers to trade directly with each other for a portion of customers' electricity demand. It also enables independent power generation specifically for export.
Important milestone
SAPP has been in existence since 1995 and includes Namibia, South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), each primarily represented by their respective national electricity utility company.
Alison Chikova, chief engineer for planning and operations, said: "SAPP's conditional membership for market participants was announced in April. Schonau is one of four to be granted conditional membership as of 28 August."
"We would like to thank SAPP for their confidence in Schonau with the grant of conditional membership and look forward to being part of the SAPP electricity market," Pieter Rossouw, Emesco's commercial director, added.
"Conditional membership is an important milestone that brings Emesco one step closer to realising its vision of playing a key role in Namibia as a net energy exporter.
"We are grateful to the Namibian Electricity Control Board for the framework development that has led us to this point, and we encourage other SAPP member countries to adopt similar market access approaches that will promote investment in sustainable energy solutions throughout the SADC region."
– [email protected]
Schonau Solar Energy is a 125 megawatt (MW) solar farm located near Warmbad specifically developed for power exports.
Last week, the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) announced that Schonau has been officially accepted as a conditional member. As a result, the project has been granted access to the regional electricity market.
Schonau's membership is one of only four awarded for the first time since April, allowing access to the market for five years.
The announcement was made during a conference on access to the SAPP and the Namibian modified single-buyer market.
This market allows independent power producers and certain large-scale customers to trade directly with each other for a portion of customers' electricity demand. It also enables independent power generation specifically for export.
Important milestone
SAPP has been in existence since 1995 and includes Namibia, South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), each primarily represented by their respective national electricity utility company.
Alison Chikova, chief engineer for planning and operations, said: "SAPP's conditional membership for market participants was announced in April. Schonau is one of four to be granted conditional membership as of 28 August."
"We would like to thank SAPP for their confidence in Schonau with the grant of conditional membership and look forward to being part of the SAPP electricity market," Pieter Rossouw, Emesco's commercial director, added.
"Conditional membership is an important milestone that brings Emesco one step closer to realising its vision of playing a key role in Namibia as a net energy exporter.
"We are grateful to the Namibian Electricity Control Board for the framework development that has led us to this point, and we encourage other SAPP member countries to adopt similar market access approaches that will promote investment in sustainable energy solutions throughout the SADC region."
– [email protected]
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