By Henry Chibulu WINDHOEK The Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF) has commended Government for putting in place policies that aim at addressing the energy crisis in the country. HSF’s managing Director Wolfgang Kleine told this to New Era at the end of the Hanns Seidel Forum whose objective was to create awareness on how Namibia would become more independent from purchasing energy from abroad by using locally produced renewable energy. “We are happy that Government has realised that there is a problem in the energy sector and is now moving in the right direction to address the problem,” said Kleine. He observed that the launch of the off-grid electrification paper for the use of renewable energy in rural areas is encouraging as the ideas therein are meant to open up development. He said his organisation will support every kind of development meant to improve the energy sector which he said is heavily dependent on foreign countries such as South Africa. Kleine said the dependency on fossil fuels and energy from outside the country has become a matter of concern in the development of the country. The Namibian power company has failed to meet the aspirations of the ordinary people because the energy provided is expensive, he noted. Kleine felt power supply and water are human resources which should not be denied to the people. He also prodded the media to help create awareness on renewable energy if the programme is to succeed. The Ministry of Mines and Energy’s chief energy researcher, Noddy Hipangelwa, said the ministry has initiated a revolving fund to install solar panels in remote areas of the country. He said the programme currently being implemented by a private company called Konga Investment has since installed 1 000 solar panels in the north.