The project, mooted way back in 2020, will be co-ordinated
by the Public Service Commission (PSC) and is expected to complement ongoing
efforts to boost the country’s power generation capacity.
Government has since moved to tap into the discovery of
lithium in various parts of the country to make batteries that will be used in
the solar energy power plant.
Addressing journalists during a Press conference in Harare
yesterday, Public Service Commission (PSC) secretary Dr Tsitsi Choruma said two
years ago, the commission made a decision that all civil servants, regardless
of grade, should benefit from the solar project.
“Currently, the Public Service Commission is working on
finding a partner outside Zimbabwe who can support us in learning and starting
production of solar ancillaries,” Dr Choruma said.
“On top of that, the commission recognises that this
country has resources and we ought to be utilising the resources that we have
locally in order to create this motion of doing things for ourselves, producing
local and hence creating value for everybody in the public service.
“We also recognise that recently as Zimbabwe, we have
discovered lithium deposits which are huge and currently these deposits are
being exported and we are hoping that besides exporting we start also
producing, for instance, lithium batteries that can be used to support this
huge solar project that the Public Service Commission is going to embark on.”
Dr Choruma said the commission was planning the project in
such a way that it would be properly financed to benefit everyone.
“As we continue, we will update you on the initiatives that
the Public Service Commission will be doing,” she said.
Zimbabwe is ramping up the production of clean energy by
investing heavily in solar power and to a lesser extent hydro power, as part of
a Government strategy to reduce energy-related emissions by about a third by
the end of 2030.
Efforts to reduce load shedding considerably are bearing
fruit with Zimbabwe soon to get up to 500MW of electricity from Zambia and
Mozambique, while Hwange Power Station’s Unit 7 should be feeding 300MW into
the grid before month-end.
Zesa Holdings executive chairman Dr Sydney Gata said owing
to low water levels at Lake Kariba and aged thermal power stations, the small
ones with equipment now 72-years-old and even Hwange more than 34-years-old,
Zimbabwe was battling massive electricity outages, with some people saying they
only have power between 10pm to 5am.
However, electricity outages are not peculiar to Zimbabwe
as large parts of the region, including powerhouse South Africa, contend with
load shedding stretching up to 10 hours per day in some cases.
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