Natasha Chamba and Prosper Ndlovu, Business Reporters 

THE prevailing electricity supply gap in Zimbabwe has placed renewable energy companies at an advantageous position to aggressively grow their businesses, as consumers seek relief from severe power cuts.

A combination of breakdowns at thermal power stations linked to ageing equipment as well as lowering of water levels at Kariba Dam, have severely crippled Zimbabwe’s power generation capacity. As of yesterday, the country was producing a combined 803MW against demand estimate of 1 500MW. 

The situation has forced the power utility, Zesa, to implement a tight load shedding regime of up to 18 hours a day. A frail regional grid has also meant that Zimbabwe can only access limited power imports mainly from South Africa and Mozambique at a huge drain of the scarce foreign exchange in the economy.

The situation has created huge appetite for renewable investments, especially solar. 

Several entities dealing with solar products have been making big business while regulators have received more applications from the private sector investors seeking to set up solar power generation plants.

One of the solar energy companies, Zonful Energy, has been rolling out campaigns across the country where it has set up lighting systems in schools and homes while supplying various systems for irrigation and offices. 

The company’s chief executive officer, Mr William Ponela, told Chronicle Business that power cuts have given then a big platform to grow.

“Millions of households are still power-poor and are in dire need of energy in Zimbabwe. We have embarked on a robust drive to ensure that every Zimbabwean family has access to energy in the next five years,” he said.

“It was long overdue for the country to embrace massive solar power especially in rural areas given the abundance of sunshine during most days of the year.

“It is high time for the country, if not Africa, to shift from hydro-electric power to the use of solar energy as an alternative renewable power source. We have plenty of solar energy.”

Mr Ponela said Zonful Energy has invested close to US$5 million under the solar project. Industry experts believe Zimbabwe consumes about US$10 million on solar products annually and the usage could triple to above US$30 million due to power outages. 

Wattpower Electrical and Solar Engineering chief executive officer, Mr Godfrey Mutyandasvika, said:

“We have more than 10 years of operational experience but we have never been this busy since the release of the load-shedding schedule. 

“We are setting up our solar systems over five houses a day and the demand is still very high. It’s a lesson going forward that urban environments should put in place solar plants to augment electricity. 

“By doing so, even when there is electricity a person will pay a very small bill as one will be using electricity for other household purposes like lighting among others.”

Another solar company, Global Solar Zimbabwe, believes the scope for solar usage is higher given low power generation by Zesa.

“Since Zesa announced its load-shedding schedule, enquiries have gone up and our work has tripled. Also, our revenues have changed significantly as businesses, individuals, schools and surgeries want alternative sources of energy when there is no electricity,” chief executive officer, Mr Jeffrey Rugare, said.

“We are doing various solar power projects of around 100KW for Unilever, Total and other organisations. 

“Global Solar is happy to announce that it has just completed the production of one of a kind bulb, which stores electricity for two to four hours after electricity has gone off.”

As evidence of increased adoption of solar, Zimbabweans have installed more than 4 000 solar geysers across the country between January and August alone, as consumers embrace energy efficiency and demand side management initiatives.

“We are promoting the use of solar geysers in place of electric geysers for water heating. 

“Statistics compiled so far indicate that from January to August 2019, up to 4 646 solar geysers have been installed,” Energy and Power Development Minister, Fortune Chasi, said recently.

From a planning and policy perspective, the minister said Government was in the process of developing a National Integrated Energy Resource Plan (NIERP). 

The intervention is set to allow a systematic development of the power sector where projects will be implemented through a competitive procurement process and not through unsolicited bids.

Zimbabwe Energy Council (ZEC) director, Mr Panganayi Sithole, who met a team from the International Finance Corporation recently said the World Bank subsidiary was ready to invest in various power projects to help various economic sectors.

“IFC is engaging Government on the potential power projects that they want to carry out in various farms and mines to lessen the encumbrance on the main power grid,” he said.

Mr Sithole said for many years mining houses have been complaining about high electricity costs and hoped that the setting up of the off-grid power plants would help miners to get enough and cheap power supplies. 

Farmers would also be able to grow crops all year round due to cheap electricity supplies. Mr Sithole said Zimbabwe requires 1 600MW daily in summer and 2 200MW in winter.

IFC is also keen to partner Government to set up off-grid energy projects. 

An IFC team was in the country early this year to do a follow up on the off-grid energy power projects discussed last year. About US$100 million is needed to kick start the projects.

Government has also set up various teams to different mines and farms to ascertain areas where power plants can be constructed. The move is expected to help farmers and miners to get electricity from their small dams or rivers.

Energy experts believe adoption of solar energy across Zimbabwe could contribute immensely to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the sense that all areas will have readily available power with little down time.