The Sunday Mail
Emmanuel Kafe
The road from Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport into the capital city, Harare, is clear and inviting.
International business visitors could be impressed by the innovative solar-powered streetlights along the road.
But unfortunately, the brightness ceases the moment one enters into the city’s suburbs as power outages have become the order of the day.
Could there be a way of addressing the power challenges afflicting the country?
Experts opine that the energy challenges that the country is facing are urgent, daunting and require alternative sources of renewable energy like biogas, wind and solar energy.
Besides being cost-effective and affordable, they make a significant contribution to the country’s energy savings, at the same time reducing pollution.
The director for the Centre for Renewable Energy and Environment Technology, Dr Gibson Mandishona, believes the country needs to move towards reliable, sustainable and cheap energy.
“Zimbabwe has an average of 3 000 hours of sunshine per year annually and we need to capitalise on this vast resource because we may not have oil but the sun could be our equivalent,” he said.
Apart from solar, he said waste-to-energy plants like biogas and turbine-turned wind energy are sources that can challenge the current power shortages in the country.
Although they are not cheap to install, they are more reliable and sustainable unlike fossil-powered source.
“With all their advantages, solar systems are not cheap to install but very reliable and sustainable,” Dr Mandishona said.
He added that an average home system costs anywhere between US$500 and US$1 000 to have a solar system and can provide enough power to light three to six rooms, power a television, fridge and some small gadgets.
“The system that includes a panel, battery, charge controller and power points costs not more than US$1 000,” he noted.
Although the cost is beyond the means of many, the power generation is reliable and sustainable.
“If governments were to remove barriers, such as high import duties, that increase the landed costs of panels, more houses could afford solar power,” he explained.
The use of innovative financing schemes, like fee-for-service arrangements, is one way to overcome the high up-front costs.
Unlike solar, biogas technology is simpler and does not require an overtly sophisticated capacity to construct and manage it.
With a lot of garbage and sewer bursting in most parts of the city, renewable energy experts say entrepreneurs with innovative ideas could consider tapping into biogas systems.
In rural areas, a minimum of three to four cattle are enough to produce 20 to 30 kilogrammes of fresh cow dung daily, which is then fed into a bio-digester and can produce enough energy to meet the heating and lighting needs of an average household.
Whilst a bio-digester constructed by Harare city council lies idle in Mbare, in other countries like Tanzania, bio-digesters are feeding into the national grid.
Wind energy is also one of the fastest growing renewable energy technologies in the world, producing electricity using kinetic energy created by turbines and air in motion.
Government, which carried a feasibility study in 2017, on wind energy has put the plans on hold as the bids received to the tender were deemed too high.
Gweru, Zvishavane, Chivhu, Bulawayo, Masvingo and the Eastern Highlands are some of the areas which had been identified with potential for wind energy power generation.
“Wind energy is a very sustainable energy source which can be harnessed to produce electricity that is fed into the national grid or for off-grid applications,” Dr Mandishona said.
Generating electricity from renewable energy instead of fossil fuels is not only reliable but offers improved public health benefits too.
Access to reliable, renewable energy is vital for the improvement of livelihoods especially in rural areas where the majority rely on firewood for cooking.
While reliable energy alone is not sufficient to eradicate extreme poverty, it is key for creating economic growth and improving the quality of life.
Besides domestic use, people are harnessing solar and biogas energy to run small businesses.
Scrapping the duty and tax on solar panels, power converters and ancillary equipment will encourage more people to get off the grid and Government needs to incentivise companies to invest in green solutions.
Zimbabwe’s Renewable Energy Draft Policy calls for renewable energies to supply 16,5percent of Zimbabwe’s electricity excluding hydro-generated electricity by 2025 and 26,5 percent by 2030.
Reports suggests that 63 percent of the population has no reliable energy access, a figure which reaches up to 90 percent in rural areas.
