A LOCAL independent power producer (IPP), New Sahara Ventures has been granted a licence by the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (Zera) to double its power production from the current five megawatts (MW) to 10MW, which will be fed into the national grid.
The development comes at a time when the country is facing an acute power deficit as a result of low water levels at Kariba Dam as well as the frequent breakdowns at Hwange Power Station.
It also comes when most licenced IPPs are failing to operate due to a number of reasons including foreign currency shortages and funding challenges.
New Sahara co-founder and head of the technical department, Brian Chindondondo said the solar project located at Guruve Solar Park has had immense benefits, not only for the local community, but for the country.
“The immediate benefits of this project has been the availability of electricity for the Guruve community, which benefited the operations of businesses and significantly reduced loadshedding over the last 16 months,” Chindondondo said.
“At national level, we are feeding power into the national grid at the interbank rate, which is cheaper than what is charged by external providers of power.”
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He revealed that increased output will see the company extending service to surrounding areas like Mvurwi and Mahuwe.
The company, according to Chindondondo, had already secured funding for increased power generation.
He said the construction of the solar park created employment for over 40 people in Guruve.
“This is a local story through and through,” Chindondondo said.
He revealed that the company was extending its operations into the region with ongoing negotiations in Mozambique to help replicate the project in the neighbouring country as well as having secured a contract to develop solar power projects in Botswana.
To this end, a delegation of Mozambican officials from Manica province was in the country to tour the solar project. One of the officials, Elidio Luis Miguel said the delegation was impressed with the solar park and would want to implement similar technology in rural Mozambique.
A visit to the Guruve Town Centre showed that business was at full throttle as a result of the electricity availed by the setting up of the solar park.
Tichakunda Mupanganyama, who runs Smart Garment at the town centre, said the supply of electricity has been a major boost to the company's operations.
“Before this solar park came on board, we used to struggle with power outages and we would use generators throughout the day which had a very negative impact on our lead times,” he said.
“With power from the solar park, we have significantly reduced production costs. This has enabled us to make our products more affordable.”