Harare(New- Ziana) – Zimbabwe is determined to accelerate the use of renewable energies such as solar, to boost local power generation capacity, a Cabinet Minister has said.
Energy and Power Development Minister Zhemu Soda said this while officially opening the 5th Southern African Solar Thermal Training and Demonstration Initiative (Soltrain).
Soltrain is a regional initiative on capacity building and the demonstration of solar thermal systems in the SADC region.
The solar thermal technology program and implementation was launched in Zimbabwe in 2018 and is in support of government’s vision of transforming the country into an upper middle-income economy by 2030.
Soda said Zimbabwe had a good climate for solar technologies.
“We have a good solar irradiance resource which averages about twenty mega joules per square meter per day in Zimbabwe so let us make use of this natural and clean energy as this will assist in saving and reducing the current power import bill,” he said.
“We are developing an energy efficiency policy which we are finalizing. Previous studies by leading experts revealed that the adoption of energy efficient technologies such as solar water heaters may help save up to 300MW of power and will assist us to ensure that every sector of our economy uses electricity cost effectively.”
Soda said adopting solar energy would also help Zimbabwe reduce its carbon footprint.
“The target for Zimbabwe is to reduce its carbon footprint by at least 40 percent which can be achieved by accelerated use of solar thermal technologies among other clean energy interventions,” he said.
The Soltrain program has allowed renewable energy sources like solar, hydro and biomass to become more attractive.
New Ziana