WALVIS BAY – Lüderitz port has just recorded an increase in the number of cargo volumes handled, with a heavy cargo vessel Lena carrying 370 tons of cargo docking at the port recently.
The heavy cargo vessel, which arrived from Spain, carried two heat exchangers, also referred to as ‘out of gauge’ cargo, weighing about 335 tons each, that were offloaded at the port.
The heat exchangers are destined for the Kaxu Solar One Project site near the town of Pofadder in the Northern Cape, South Africa. The Kaxu Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) and Photovoltaic Technology generates renewable energy through infrastructure comprising of both a heat collection system and a conventional generating plant portion.
This is a system of parabolic collectors, a receiver tube/heat collection element, a sun-tracking system and support structure. The collected energy in the heat is transformed into liquid that is used to generate steam through a conventional heat exchanger system, which in turn is used for electricity generation in a conventional steam turbine and generator.
The remaining ‘out of gauge’ cargo is scheduled to make its way via Lüderitz port during the course of this year. The port manager Max Kooper says this is a positive indication of the Namibia Port Authority’s commitment and unwavering effort to attract business to, and to make Lüderitz the preferred port of entry for export/import goods to and from the Northern Cape in South Africa.
Kooper could not hide his excitement stating that with the establishment of the Lüderitz Trade Corridor Initiative, business is set to grow from strength to strength with major benefits to both the town and southern Namibia’s development, the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) as well as the economic growth of the country as a whole.
By Eveline de Klerk