Doranova will start a biogas plant project in Namibia in early 2021. Hardferm biogas plant will be built to the city of Ondangwa and it will turn sewage wastes and farming residuals into electricity, heat and biofertilizers. Project will improve sanitation of the city as well as reduce the dependency from imported electricity.
Building a biogas plant to Namibia is not a coincidence for Doranova. Company has been developing biogas projects in the country with its local partner for almost five years now. In addition, Doranova acquired a small equity share from Alpha Namibia Industries Renewable Energy Power Limited (ANIREP) company in 2019. ANIREP concentrates on acquiring, building and operating renewable energy assets in solar, wind and biomass sectors. More information from ANIREP can be found from: www.anirep.com
Substrates and project destination are challenging
Doranova is not the first Finnish organization in Ondangwa. Quite frankly, this competition was lost already more than 100 years ago, when Finnish Missionary Society started its operations in the city in 1890. Ondangwa and its neighbouring cities still actively cooperates with Finnish universities and cities.
The biogas plant project in Ondangwa is built around Hardferm biogas plant concept. Substrates processed by the plant will have significant amounts of impurities in them. In a traditional biogas plant these impurities will cause at least excess amounts of wear and tear. In addition, sand and other heavy particles will accumulate to the bottom of reactors. Hardferm biogas plants do not suffer from these deficiencies.
Physical distance between Finland and Northern Namibia requires special attention to be paid to the project management and logistics. Fortunately, Hardferm biogas plants are designed so that local subcontracting can be widely leveraged. This will reduce the total investment price as well as enable local stakeholders to benefit from the project already during the construction period.
Ondangwa project is partially financed by The Energy and Environment Partnership Trust Fund (EEP Africa). When fully operational, Ondangwa biogas plant will reduce CO2 emissions by 2,330 tons annually.
