Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Bushes for Power Generation

Home Archived Bushes for Power Generation

By Wezi Tjaronda

WINDHOEK

A project to combat bush encroachment by using the vegetation for electricity generation has secured funding from the National Planning Commission’s Rural Poverty Reduction Programme (RPRP).

The aim of the project, Combatting Bush Encroachment for Namibia’s Development (C-Bend) is to assess the actual economics of generating electricity from invader bush and develop the best management practices for rural bush to energy.

When proved successful, the project, which starts September, will pave the way for the introduction of such technologies in rural communities and areas.
C-Bend is a collaborarative effort of the Desert Research Foundation Namibia (DRFN), Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU) and Namibia National Farmer’s Union (NNFU). The project has signed a contract which will see the commissions poverty reduction programme disburse N$14 million.

Renewable Energy and Energy Efficient Capacity Building Project’s Caroline Coulson told New Era yesterday they are still working on where the project will be located. The project is expected to be located in one of the areas with a high density of invader bush around the north centrals areas of Tsumeb, Otavi and Grootfontein.

Other criteria to be considered for the project site include proximity of the areas to electricity, where the generated power can be fed into the national grid and also the willingness of farmers around those areas to have their farms used. The objective of the project is to get a bush to electricity enterprise up and running and through the enterprise hopefully change the perception that invader bush is a nuisance. The bush will be harvested sustainably as a resource in a way that it can be re-harvested in future.

Until now, the charcoal industry is the largest converter of invader bush to wood fuel substitutes. It produces about 30