Namibia faces a serious power shortage problem. Natural gas and oil are not yet available in the country and power import from South Africa is uncertain, due to a severe power shortage in this neighbour country.

Namibia has one of the best solar regimes in the world with an average direct insolation of 2,200 kWh/m²/year (peaking to 3,000 kWh/m²/year in certain areas), with minimal cloud cover.

The national utility company does not have the experience to undertake the development of a photovoltaic (PV) project alone. Licensed Iocal IPPs€™ PV projects have not yet achieved a significant progress.

Namibia’s national resource plan (as of 2013)

Namibia’s electricity resource plan envisages the following:

• ECB remains the Authority granting IPP licenses (20 years)
• ECB has the mandate to approve electricity tariffs
• NamPower remains the single buyer of electricity through PPAs individually negotiated with the IPPs
• The 400 MW Kudu Gas Power plant would be a key long term resource and will be built on greenfield basis if and when natural gas will be produced from the 1.3 TCF offshore Kudu gas field (first gas expected in 2018; developers: Tullow Oil, Itochu, Namcor),
• Long term imports (100 MW) are envisaged until renewable energy projects come on stream
• Temporary generation (10MW) to be arranged by NamPower
• Renewable Energy projects (hydro, solar, biomass, wind) would be encouraged in order to meet the demand.

An international tender process has been promoted by the national Authority in order to attract foreign investors to build and operate a new photovoltaic power generation plant of 30 MW size on the basis of a take-or-pay arrangement with Nampower.