Zim on the cusp of a green energy revolution
Zimbabwe is on the cusp of a green energy revolution if the number of new projects that are on the pipeline is anything to go by.
An array of projects were announced at the just ended fifth edition of the International Renewable Energy Conference and Expo organised by one The Standard in conjuction with the Energy and Power Development ministry, which ended in Victoria Falls on Friday.
One of the key highlights of the conference was the focus on new renewable projects.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) unveiled its Energy Offer Project where it expects to develop five electricity mini grids in rural
Zimbabwe worth US$1.5 million.
UNDP’s initiative’s main objective is to accelerate energy transition and closing the energy access gap through the provision of universal access to modern energy services.
The Energy Offer Project, which is being implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Energy, Rural Electrification Agency (REA) and its partners will power irrigation schemes, businesses, clinics, schools, and community water pumping schemes.
Cassandra Kadenha, the UNDP’s Energy Offer Project coordinator, told the conference that the initiative will help to accelerate Zimbabwe’s adoption of renewable energy sources at a time the world is seeking solutions to climate change.
“The UNDP Energy Offer Project identifies optimised action points for a renewed approach towards accelerated energy transition and closing the energy access gap in Zimbabwe for Sustainable Development Goals achievement through green investment,” Kadenha said.
“This will pave way for regular renewable energy technology-specific investment forums in the future.
“Support through a pre-feasibility study will act as the first step in derisking pipeline projects with the goal of attracting investment in the short to medium term.
“We have realised that potentially lucrative projects usually do not go beyond the drawing board because they simply do not have the resources that are needed in the early stages of project preparation and as UNDP this is where we are coming from.”
UNDP said it had identified five potential mini grids from 10 sites following various studies.
“We have developed pre-feasibility studies from 10 pre identified sites and these sites have been identified from the rural energy master plan and the map shows that areas where these have been done and the objective of the prefeasibility study is to provide an initial scoping assessment so as to ascertain the technical potential of the project to support rural energy access,” Kadenha added.
“Five mini grids have been selected from 10 sites by assessing their readiness for them to be developed for an economically sustainable mini grid based on factors such as the accessibility of the area, infrastructure present in the area, demography, economic profile and energy resources present as well as possibility of the people to have access to finance and micro credits.”
It also emerged at the conference that the government is in the process of screening 30 renewable energy projects by independent power producers (IPPs) to guarantee their bankability.
Treasury and the Ministry of Energy and Power Development said 10 IPP projects had been given government guarantees and they were given their documents at the end of the conference.
The 10 IPP projects can generate a combined 271 megawatts (MW) of power.
Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion minister Mthuli Ncube told The Standard in an exclusive interview that Treasury would guarantee another 30 IPP projects.
“We expect over 30 IPPs to come through,” Ncube said.
“That will produce an additional 1 000 megawatts of electricity, all of them renewable.
“The bulk of them are solar, but there will be some hydro, mini-hydro projects, all of different sizes.
“So, we should expect at least a 1 000MW to come through over time,” Ncube told this paper.
“Really, this is just the start. "You may recall, or not, at the end of December 2022, I actually did a press conference at the Meikles Hotel basically announcing these IPPs.
“And now, we are going through them one by one to make sure they are okay with the terms of