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Senior Business Reporter
CONSTRUCTION of a 150 megawatt solar power plant at a cost of about $400 million in Marondera by De Green Rhino Energy is set to begin in September.
De Green Rhino is a partnership between London-based Green Rhino Energy — run by German solar experts — and a local company De Opper Trading.
The Marondera solar farm is part of the $5,2 billion investments the company intends to make over 15 years in several solar power stations around the country that would produce 2,500 MW.
“Construction of the solar plant will commence in September. So far, we’re working to have a power purchase agreement, which we hope would be granted by the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority by end of April after which we will then come up with a financial closure that will see us kicking off the project,” said De Opper Trading chief executive officer Francis Gogwe by in a telephone interview.
He said construction of the solar power plant was expected to take between nine and 12 months with the first phase of the project expected to generate 50MW.
“The first stage of the solar power plant will produce 50MW, which will be added into the national grid.
We hope that we’ll be feeding into the national grid by August or September 2017,” he said.
The government offered De Green Rhino Energy 375 hectares of land in Marondera for the project.
Green Rhino Energy is developing large-scale solar and waste-to-energy plants in South Africa, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Puerto Rico and India.
In the past few years, Zera has licensed about 23 independent power producers whose projects are at different stages of implementation.
Zimbabwe requires about 2,200MW but was generating less than 1,200MW, one of the major factors denting the country’s economic recovery efforts.
According to the Zimbabwe Power Company, as of Wednesday the country’s daily output stood at 1,045MW.
The power deficit was due to obsolete equipment at the country’s generation plants as well as lack of investment in new electricity projects in recent years.
Online Reporter