Zimbabwe not keen on developing solar power

• 7 years ago (2016-10-25)
• David Flin

Africa 303 Asia 848 Australasia 51 Biomass 8 Climate change 20 Coal 274 Cogeneration 1 Concentrating solar 5 Cyber security 8 Decarbonisation 1 Decentralised energy 5 Demand side management 2 Demand side response 2 Digitalisation 10 Distributed energy 10 Distribution 108 Electric vehicles EVs 4 Emissions 57 Energy management 1 Equipment 2 Europe 1061 Gas 371 Gas engine plant 58 Gas fuel 1 Horizon 2 Hydroelectric 17 Hydrogen 53 Hydropower 111 Latin America 75 Maintenance 3 Marine 1 Metering 2 microgrid 5 Middle East 311 North America 998 Nuclear 640 Offshore wind 119 Oil 16 Operations 4 Policy 8 Regulations 3 Renewables 752 smart grid 2 Solar 244 Storage 37 substation 8 Tepco 2 Tidal 2 Toshiba 4 Transmission 181 US Senate Washington 4 Wind 239

---

A senior official of the Zimbabwe Government has said that the country is not keen on developing solar power, because it is expensive compared to other forms of energy. Patson Mbiriri, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Power Development, said that developing solar energy was not a viable option for Zimbabwe, despite the country possessing abundant sunshine.

Mbiriri said: “Solar is available during our off-peak period. We have peak demand in the morning and evening, when there is no sunshine. So we have lots of solar available during the day, during our off-peak period.” He said fair pricing of solar energy was also not guaranteed since “politics” always came into play in determining energy tariffs.

Mbiriri said Zimbabwe had enjoyed a stable supply of power over the year, despite facing significant challenges with power generation, due to reliable imports from South Africa and Mozambique. The country is importing 400 MW from these two countries. Zimbabwe’s power demand has fallen from 2200 MW a decade ago to 1400 MW, due to low industrial productivity.