eBusiness Weekly
Africa Moyo
The switch to renewable energy in line with Government’s call is slowly gaining traction, with solar and wind energy projects that have potential to generate 255,5MW already lined-up.
The Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (Zera) announced this week that it had received applications from Guruve Solar Park (Private) Limited; Zororo Energy Company (Private) Limited and Mopower Solar (Private) Limited.
Mopower Solar intends to construct a 100MW solar plant in Gweru while Zororo Energy has set sights on a 50MW plant at Utopia Farm, Melfort near Marondera, Mashonaland East province.
Guruve Solar also wants to construct, own, operate and maintain a 5,5MW solar plant at Dunavet in Mashonaland Central province.
Said Zera in one of the statements: “Notice is hereby issued in terms of section 4(3) of the Electricity (Licensing) Regulations, 2008 published in Statutory Instrument 103 of 2008 that the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (Zera) received an application from Mopower Solar (Private) Limited to construct, own, operate and maintain a 100MW solar plant at Orient Farm of Somabula in Gweru, Midlands province.
“The applicant intends selling the power generated to Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company. The project will also include the construction of six kilometres of a 132kV transmission line to connect the proposed solar plant to the existing Chertsey Gweru 132Kv substation.”
The other two companies — Zororo Energy and Guruve Solar Park — also want to feed power to the national grid.
Therefore, they will construct transmission lines to connect their projects to existing substations in their areas.
This week, Econet announced it was broadening its renewable energy business and had picked Bulawayo as the centre of its green energy business in the country.
Econet Energy operates under the name Distributed Power Africa (DPA), and it principally focuses on rooftop solar power systems for commercial and industrial customers.
Dubai firm wants pound of flesh
Access Power Dubai (Pvt) Limited wants to develop two 50MW renewable energy plants, which will generate power from solar and wind.
The company’s officials engaged the Zimbabwe delegation, which also included the Director for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation in the Ministry of Energy and Power Development, Dr Sosten Ziuku, on the sidelines of the January 10 to 14 Abu Dhabi conference.
“Access Power expressed their willingness to develop two projects in Zimbabwe which are; 50MW solar power plant to be developed in phases of 20MW, 20MW and 10MW, and 50MW wind power also to be developed in phases.
“Having already identified the two sites for the project, Access Power promised to officially submit an updated proposal in two weeks’ time. The parties agreed to prioritise the development of the first 20MW in the next 24 months,” said Dr Gumbo.
Access Power is a fast growing developer owner and operator of power assets in emerging and frontier markets and is currently developing power projects worth over $1 billion in 23 countries across Africa and Asia.
Plans dovetail with Govt strategy
The plans by Mopower Solar, Guruve Solar Park and Zororo Energy, are in sync with Government’s recent call for more investments in renewable energy, focusing principally on wind and solar.
Renewable energy is increasingly becoming popular with global financiers given its friendliness to the environment, compared to thermal energy.
Energy and Power Development Minister Dr Gumbo told Business Weekly recently that there are plans to entrench the generation of energy from renewable sources.
Dr Gumbo plans to meet top officials from ZESA Holdings and independent power producers (IPPs) to craft a way forward.
This comes as top renewable energy players from the United Arab Emirates have expressed interest in constructing 100MW wind and solar power plants in the country.
Dr Gumbo said Zimbabwe is lagging behind several countries in terms of renewable energy, making it imperative to fast-track the creation of an enabling environment for the promotion of renewable energy.
“My ministry will soon craft appropriate legislative framework to move from unsolicited procurement of renewable energy projects to renewable energy auctions at selected sites.
“Going forward, the ministry will engage public utilities and IPPs to expedite the development of these wind power projects,” said Dr Gumbo, who recently attended a green energy conference organised by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates recently.
He said Government wants to “move with speed” to ensure that both the Renewable Energy Policy and the Biofuels Policy are launched.
Draft documents are already complete and the ministry will finalise administrative procedures in the first quarter of this year.
IRENA, a global institution with 160 members as at last year, has already extended technical assistance to Zimbabwe, which was useful in evaluating the development cost and applicable tariffs for solar projects at 16 sites across the country.
The technical and financial appraisals by IRENA show that the capital cost of solar projects is now much lower than previously anticipated.
Tariffs for solar have also reached grid-parity, implying that the cost of solar power plants is now lower than that of conventional coal power plants.
Countries such as Germany, Chile and Egypt are now benefiting from solar electricity fed into the grid at less than 5c per kilowatt hour (kWh).
This was achieved after the countries changed their procurement methods from unsolicited bids and renewable energy feed-in tariffs (REFIT) to renewable energy auctions.
Last year, IRENA conducted pre-feasibility studies for wind at five sites in Zimbabwe and the results have since been submitted to the Ministry of Energy.
Dr Gumbo said the results of the study show that Zimbabwe can develop wind farms at five sites at relatively “moderate cost and tariffs”.
Zimbabwe also took advantage of the Abu Dhabi conference to engage possible sources of funding for renewable energy projects from IRENA. It was established that countries keen on moving into the renewable energy sector can access concessional funding through the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD).
The ADFD provides concessional loans for renewable energy projects ranging from $5 million to $20 million.
The loan facility has a five-year grace period, payable over 20 years and carries a 2 percent interest. However, countries should provide a sovereign guarantee.
Said Dr Gumbo: “Given the attractiveness of this low-cost finance, my ministry will liaise with State enterprises such as the Rural Electricity Fund (REF), Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC), Finealt Engineering (and) ZESA Enterprises (Zent) to submit projects for funding in the next funding project cycle to be opened in February 2019. Private sector businesses may also apply.”
