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Herald Reporter
Government has called on foreign investors to capitalise on Zimbabwe’s energy supply demand and invest in the sector, citing strong domestic demand and abundant renewable resources, particularly in solar.
Energy and Power Development Minister Edgar Moyo said this at the 40th Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) which concluded on Thursday.
This year’s conference ran under the theme, “Together We Innovate for a Sustainable Future,” with the aim of addressing key issues including Artificial Intelligence (AI) in energy, energy security, and expectations for COP 29.
The Minister, who was accompanied by a local delegation of experts, told the media on the sidelines of the event that the country was ripe for investment.
“As Zimbabwe, we are very concerned about the issue of energy security and number one is energy access to the entire population of the country.
“For most of the time, a few years back, it has been Government responsibility to ensure that energy is supplied to the whole country through a Government utility, but we have now changed our regulations and opened up the sector to private players.
“We are encouraging all those who would want to invest in the energy sector to come and we are saying that there is a lot of opportunities in that sector because of the supply-demand gap.”
“With the current thrust towards reducing carbon emissions and to mitigate climate change, we are now moving towards renewables and one of the key renewables we are looking at is solar”.
Minister Moyo said Government had invited independent power producers to come into the sector and ensure that the contribution of solar to the energy mix is enhanced.
“To ensure that this is catalysed, we have asked mining companies who are consuming up to 25 percent of the total energy that the country generates to develop solar projects and generate their own power from solar.”
Online Reporter