INTENSIVE energy user group subsidiary, Green Hybrid Power (Pvt) Ltd says it is expecting to sink in excess of US$250 million in developing a 1 000 megawatt (MW) hybrid floating solar photovoltaic (PV) project which is set to be completed in less than 18 months, NewsDay Business can report.
The project, which is set to be carried out in four phases, is meant to augment power generation at Lake Kariba as the Kariba floating solar project takes shape.
This comes as the company, IEUG, recently said it will need over US$3 billion in the next five years to transmit electricity from areas of power surplus to regions in deficit in the country.
In a recent presentation, Green Hybrid Power managing director Caleb Dengu said the Kariba floating solar project optimises the usage of the existing transmission infrastructure and it will also augment the power generation capacity of the dam by over 30%.
The majority of current power generation in Zimbabwe is dependent on coal-fired power stations and Dengu said “this project will help achieve our national decarbonation targets”.
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“To augment power generation at Kariba, Green Hybrid Power (Pvt) Ltd is developing a 1 000MW hybrid floating solar PV project in four phases,” he said.
“The first phase of 250MW is to be implemented in less than 18 months and the project investment cost is estimated to be US$250 million.
“The hydro-floating solar hybrid project at Kariba could/will integrate three clean sources of energy: hydro (already existing and operational assets), solar and battery energy storage system (BESS) (new assets to be developed).”
He added: “The plant will use the same existing transmission assets of the hydro-power plant obviating the need for the significant investments into separate transmission lines, which will enhance project economics and attractiveness.”
Dengu said the hybrid plant will generate electricity from solar energy during the day when solar is readily available and from hydro-power during the night-time when solar is not available.
The BESS, which can be optional, will support higher system reliability through smoothing continual electricity generation during any transition between the two sources when this becomes necessary.
“This is further enabled through energy management, communication and weather forecast systems that are incorporated into the hybrid plant to enhance stability of the electricity generation systems thereby mitigating the intermittent nature of solar renewable energy systems,” Dengu said.
“The hydro-floating solar hybrid plant will operate as a dispatchable base load plant complementing and improving Kariba South Power Station output. The latter is constrained by severe output cutbacks due to climate change-induced low generation (which has resulted in low usable live storage water lake levels).”
Speaking about the value proposition of the project, Dengu said the solar panels, which cover less than 0,0004% of the water body, will not interfere with any other economic activities such as fishing, tourism and transport.
To the contrary, he said the project will enhance not only energy security, but also food security through promoting and up-scaling of fish farming on the lake that will be undertaken beneath the floating solar PV platform.