Namibia cannot continue to be electrified by conventional means. A population of
2,2 million, spread over 824 000 square kilometres cannot come up with the financial
means to put each of the estimated 465 000 households on grid. And even if all these
houses could technically be connected to a national grid, the majority of the Namibian
population cannot afford rising prices for electricity, which would be unavoidable to
finance the connection and centralised generation plants. According to the Namibia
2011 Population and Household Census1
, 59% (135 084) of urban and 7% (16 512) of
rural households are connected to grid electricity, and are thus exposed to the centralised
distribution system with all its weaknesses and exorbitantly rising costs and tariffs. To
try and finance further investment in the out-dated technical concept of centralised,
fossil-based electricity supply from tax-payers’ money will put further constraint on the
national budget and disappoint many of the people who voted for the new Namibian
government, because many long-awaited investments will not be possible since the
money needs to be used to service expensive international loans.
Government thus has two choices: either to bring electricity to where the people are,
in order to make life more attractive in the countryside to persuade people to stay
there, or to wait until people come to where the electricity is. Windhoek grows with
approximately 10 000 people per year and approximately 44% of the Namibian nation
is now urbanised, as compared with less than 28% at independence in 1990 – indicating
massive rural-urban migration.
Namibia is in the historical situation to be able to decentralise Power generation not
only technically, but also with regard to the value-streams attached. Estimations say
that 20 000 to 50 000 – some say even more – direct and secondary jobs of a permanent,
sustainable nature can be created mainly in rural areas if the opportunities that are
related to decentralised, renewable energy (RE) generation in conjunction with energy
efficiency (EE) are put to use.
Bush-to-electricity can generate power on demand and at the same time employ
thousands of workers to harvest the bush and run the power stations, while creating
more space for raising cattle. Decentralised photovoltaic (PV) installations can provide
employment for hundreds of people for the processes of setting up and maintenance. The
installation of solar water heaters can also provide jobs, provided the decision makers
in Namibia make their use compulsory and ban electrical water heaters (EWH), which
are installed because of the lower initial investment, but incur exorbitant running cost
for making warm water. Other technologies such as concentrated solar power (CSP),
with storage, and biogas can fill the gaps when resources like wind and PV cannot meet
the need.
New sources such as geothermal potential (hot springs at Gross Barmen, Windhoek,
Rehoboth and Ai-Ais), wave power, ocean stream and others need to be explored and
made useful for the Namibian nation. Such strategies would decouple power supply
in Namibia from internationally linked factors such as the price for gas, oil and coal,
as well as exchange rate fluctuations of international currencies, and would provide
electricity to Namibian households and enterprises at conditions and prices that are
dependent on circumstances prevailing in Namibia, not elsewhere in the world.
Prices for renewable energy can easily be kept at a consistent level, because the source
of power generation is free and eternal, while prices for all fossil fuels and nuclear
energy are subject to international developments beyond the control of any Namibian.