Impact of climate change on renewable energy in Namibia

Energy is a very important ingredient for economic development in any country. What is challenging for Namibia and many countries however is the drive to get a desirable energy mix, diversifying energy supply options and more fundamentally, the need to meet energy demand which has far outstripped energy supply. In order to get an energy mix, there has been a drive to derive energy from natural resources, mostly renewable sources. These include wind and the sun mainly. However, there are growing concerns of the climate changing and the devastating effects such a change in weather patterns would have on our natural resources. Since renewable energy (RE) power generating schemes rely on natural resources such as water/rain, wind, temperature/sun, it is therefore important to investigate what impact change in climate would have on the production of energy from RE plants. This research study aims to investigate such effects and also answer the question of whether decision makers really utilize the available information on climate to help in the decision making especially as far as investment in new RE projects is concerned. The study focused on Namibia as a case study.

Petrus Shetuhanga Kanelombe is the Head: Power System Protection at Namibia's Power Utility Company, NamPower.He holds a Msc degree in Technology Management from the University of Pretoria. He served in NamPower's Power System Protection department for 10 years. He is registered as Incorporated Engineer with the Engineering Council of Namibia.