The Minister of Energy and Power Development, Fortune
Chasi, has called for greater private sector participation in the generation of
renewable solar energy to help complement Government’s electricity supply.
Speaking during a tour of Distributed Power Africa’s (DPA)
recently commissioned solar power plant at Econet’s Willowvale office complex
in Harare, the new Energy Minister commended Econet and DPA for leading in the
adoption of renewable energy.
“I would like to congratulate the Econet group and DPA for
taking the lead in driving the use and adoption of renewable energy which
reduces the load on the national power grid,” the minister said.
The installation of the 466KW grid-tied solar system, which
was constructed under an Independent Power Producer (IPP) Licence issued by the
Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA), marks DPA’s largest commercial and
industrial project to date.
Zimbabwe has been experiencing power shortages that have
prompted the national power utility company ZESA to introduce an aggressive
load-shedding schedule in a bid to manage power consumption across industry,
business and domestic users.
Minister Chasi said Government supported efforts by private
sector players such as DPA to deploy solar energy generating plants, as this
would reduce dependency on the national grid, lower the energy importation bill
and save scarce foreign currency.
“Government fully supports the use of solar power and sees
the adoption of renewable energy as a sustainable, clean and long-term option
to the challenges of inadequate power supply,” the minister said.
The country’s power deficit has been made worse by the
current hydro-power challenges at Kariba Dam, where the water level is
dangerously low at only 29 percent full.
“But solar energy can alleviate the country’s dependence on
both hydro-power energy and non-renewable fossil fuels, and it can
significantly reduce the importation of energy and save scarce foreign
currency, which can be used for other national developmental programmes,” the
minister said.
He said Government was ready to engage the private sector
to create an enabling environment when it comes to power generation, and to
ensure an energy policy framework that facilitates for ease of generation and
adoption of renewable energy.
Econet Wireless Zimbabwe group CEO Mr Douglas Mboweni said
Government’s support was key in the success of renewable energy adoption in Zimbabwe.
“We cherish the Minister of Energy’s visit and his interest
in what we are doing. We are encouraged by his commitment to encourage the
private sector to participate in contributing to sustainable energy
generation,” said Mr Mboweni, pledging that Econet was ready to play its part.
Econet has installed grid-tied solar systems at nearly all
of its major business premises around the country, including Harare, Bulawayo
and Mutare.
DPA Zimbabwe’s CEO, Mr Divyajeet Mahajan, whose company has
successfully installed over 1MW in Zimbabwe, said DPA’s business model lent
itself to speedy deployment, at minimum risk to the client.
“We believe that with our zero-risk asset financing model,
the adoption of solar energy will significantly increase, and it is our hope
that more businesses will take up this opportunity as energy remains a critical
pillar in Zimbabwe’s economic transformation,” said Mr Mahajan, adding that DPA
had a project pipeline of 150MW. Herald
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