SunEQ Namibia has reached financial close with the Development Bank of Namibia (DBN) for a 5 MWAC solar project for Ohorongo Cement, the largest cement factory in Namibia.

It is a major milestone for the sister company of German solar consulting company Suntrace on its way towards becoming an independent power producer. SunEQ has structured the financing substantially from local Namibian sources, both in terms of equity and debt. Namibia Infrastructure Finance Limited (NIFCO), an unlisted infrastructure investment company targeting renewable energy projects in Namibia (jointly established and owned by Old Mutual Investment Group Namibia and IJG Capital), has a shareholding of 60%, together with a Namibian Empowerment Partner Hungileni Investment holding 30% and SunEQ holding 10%. The Co-Developer and EPC-Contractor is GILDEMEISTER Energy Solutions GmbH, a subsidiary of DMG Mori.

The captive power plant is located next to the Ohorongo Cement factory in the Otjozondjupa region. The plant will be equipped with approximately 20,000 crystalline silicon modules mounted on a tracking system and an installed capacity of 6.5 MWDC for an output of 5 MWAC. Once it starts commercial operation, which has been scheduled for end of June 2018, an estimated 14 GWh per year of clean electricity will be fed into the electricity grid of Ohorongo Cement.

Commenting on the announcement, Dr. Matthias Schwara, SunEQs Managing Director said: "The team at SunEQ is delighted to have reached financial close with our local partners OMIGNAM, IJG Capital and Hungileni. The project is a major step in our mission to increase the solar energy production in the region. We believe that the plant will be a blueprint for other industrial off takers."

"This financial close shows the comfort of Shareholders, the Development Bank of Namibia and other stakeholders with this robustly structured project. We are grateful to have won the trust of our customer Ohorongo Cement to develop, finance, build and operate the solar power supply for an industrial and mining company in Sub Saharan Africa. There is a lot of potential in this type of projects in Africa and we can now build on this reference and pursue further opportunities of similar type" says Boris Westphal, Managing Director of Suntrace GmbH. The Hamburg-based group is pursuing a pipeline of solar projects in Africa.