Bringing Renewable Energy to Namib Mills

Namib Mills the superproducer

Namib Mills began life as a maize mill in Windhoek, but in 30 years has grown to become the biggest grain producer in Namibia. For a company of Namib Mills size, energy sourcing and usage is a huge concern, especially as Namibia has an energy scarcity problem.

How did Onnu help?

Onnu was commissioned to help Namib Mills increase their energy autonomy with renewables. After an initial scoping report it was clear that the best opportunity for Namib Mills lay in solar, due to the abundance in sunlight hours in Namibia. However, utilising wind and biomass for energy also have a lot of potential, and both options are still being explored on the Namib Mills sites. 

The best opportunity for Namib Mills lay in solar, but wind and biomass-to-energy also have a lot of potential

Results

Namib Mills has set up three solar plants in three different sites across Namibia. These plants are currently producing over 8,500MW of electricity every year, which produces clean energy for an essential industry. The effort that Namib Mills has put into making energy production more sustainable will be rewarded with carbon credit revenue to ensure sustainable renewable energy production for the next 25 years. 

What's Next?

Following this success, Onnu has worked with Namib Mills’ on creating a plan to use the plentiful amounts of biomass they have access to. Burning the biomass via pyrolysis can reduce the amount of waste Namib Mills currently has to process, whilst also producing clean, renewable energy while removing carbon from the atmosphere, furthering their energy saving, sustainability and community goals.