In Clean Energy News, Original Blog Content

In early October, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with UNICEF Namibia announced the official launch of a vehicle-grid integration (VGI) and electric vehicle (EV) project at the United Nations House in Windhoek. It’s the first EV VGI facility on the continent, the first in Namibia, and the first in the entire UN agency family.

Nuvve has been working with UNDP and partners to install two VGI chargers in the new EV charging facility at the UN House to demonstrate how VGI can help integrate solar and other renewable-sourced energy to the grid.

In developing countries like Namibia, VGI can play an important role in moving away from reliance on fossil fuels and helping to stabilize what is an otherwise, unreliable energy grid. Currently, Namibia imports more than 50% of its energy from South Africa, which itself faces shortages and has regular energy cuts, so projects like this are part of a bigger vision to develop the country’s own energy sources. And since Namibia enjoys up to 300 days of sunshine a year, it’s the perfect test bed for demonstrating how solar energy and EVs can work together to create a more resilient grid while reducing CO2 emissions.

In the future, as more EVs and VGI-enabled chargers are installed, the program can evolve to include building services for the UN House such as emergency power back-up and more.

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