Mozambique: Government awards 28-year concession to first utility-scale wind farm

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Mozambique: Government awards 28-year concession to first utility-scale wind farm

2:44 CAT | 15 Aug 2024

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Globeleq]

Mozambique’s government has awarded a 28-year concession to the Namaacha Power Plant, a public-private partnership to build the country’s first utility-scale wind farm in southern Mozambique, in an investment of almost €250 million.

The concession provides for the generation and sale of the electricity from the Namaacha 120MW wind farm to the national electricity grid.

The same decree authorises the participation of state-owned power utility Eletricidade de Moçambique (EDM) “representing the state” in the concessionaire’s shareholding structure, with a 5% share.

It states that, during the 28-year concession period, the Namaacha Power Plant will “increase the installed electricity production capacity in Mozambique and the security of supply” and, simultaneously, enable the “diversification of the sources used in energy production”.

Construction of Mozambique’s first utility-scale wind farm is expected to begin in the second half of this year.

The project is promoted by Globeleq, one of the largest investors in the energy production sector in Mozambique, in partnership with the Mozambican state. It foresees an investment of US$230 million in the construction of the wind farm and US$40 million for the construction of a 40-kilometre electricity transmission line between Namaacha and Boane districts in Maputo province.

It will also “generated employment and provide training for local communities”, contributing to “the economic development of Mozambique, by making part of the installed capacity available to the national energy transmission network” and also by “generating tax revenue for the state”, the government decree states.

According to the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), consulted today by Lusa, the installation of this park, with 15 wind turbine towers, will involve a total area of 101,654 square meters.

“It is expected that new jobs will be created, with an estimated 250 direct workers assigned to the project,” the document reads, and about 20 jobs during the operational phase.

The EIA adds that the Namaacha Power Plant will have an estimated output of 193,400 MegaWatt-hours/year, equivalent to ‘an annual consumption of coal of around 52,626 tonnes or 30,187 million cubic metres of natural gas’.

“Making an estimate of emissions, it can be said that the park foreseen in the project will contribute annually to the non-emission of around 65,350 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, when compared with the production of equivalent energy using natural gas, or to the non-emission of around 154,658 tons of CO2, per year, considering that the fuel used would be coal,” the report concludes.

Source: Lusa