IBC SOLAR is supporting the University of Bayreuth, the Technical University of Ingolstadt and the Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences as an industry partner for the project in order to secure and increase the energy supply in remote areas of Namibia. The system house will be primarily responsible for the technical appraisal and long-term monitoring of existing systems during the project. This also includes developing system improvements for storage and control systems and delivering the corresponding components. The research will also be funded by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) with approximately 1.24 million Euros in the next three years.
Improve the energy supply in rural areas cost-effectively
“Solar power is now cheaper than electricity from the grid and the PV market in Southern Africa has significant growth potential,” explains Albert Engelbrecht, Senior Vice President Solutions International at IBC SOLAR. “We are very pleased to be helping the universities implement this project with our expertise and products. The project contains promising solutions which can also be used to improve the energy supply in other rural areas of Africa cost-effectively and efficiently,” says Engelbrecht.
Renewable powered mini grids
Together with the system house, the researchers will use renewable energy and stand-alone grids referred to as “mini grids” to implement the project. These decentralised power grids restricted to smaller areas are operated by local providers and are not embedded into a unified nationwide integrated grid. In cooperation with Namibian partners, decentralised models for the energy infrastructure will be developed in the future, which correspond to the local electricity demand, make use of current technical possibilities and are accepted by the rural population. These island grids ought to be economically viable and easy to maintain.
More than half of Namibia’s rural population has no access to electricity. Connecting households to the national power grid is neither technically nor economically practical in many parts of the country. The lack of access to electricity is one of the main drawbacks in the efforts to reduce poverty and achieve industrialisation. (HCN)
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