PPC defers solar project set up

Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter
REGIONAL cement producer, Pretoria Portland Cement, says its planned 32MW solar power plant in Colleen Bawn, Matabeleland South Province, would start taking shape next year.

PPC Zimbabwe last year announced plans to set up the solar power plant at its clinker factory with a view to provide the cement manufacturer 16MW while the remainder would be fed into the national grid.

In an interview yesterday, PPC Zimbabwe managing director, Mr Kelibone Masiyane, said the project was still at the tender process but revealed that a preferred bidder has been identified.

However, he could not be drawn to name the identified preferred bidder, citing professional reasons.

“We are still in the tender sort-like process. We have a preferred bidder that we are dealing with but due to the festive holidays, we haven’t moved much.

“We expect to make some serious strides early next month,” he said.

In July this year, during an interview at the launch of the company’s Surerange product in Bulawayo, PPC head of operations Mr Marvelous Sibanda disclosed that the company had selected the prospective provider of the technology for the proposed solar power plant.

“Early January we should be announcing the name of the company that we will be dealing with as the project takes shape,” he said.

A total of 38 bidders drawn locally, regionally and internationally, responded to the tender.

The construction of the solar project is expected to take 18 months.

Mr Masiyane would also not be drawn into revealing the project’s funding requirements saying such information was confidential at the moment.

The Government is encouraging Independent Power Producers to complement its efforts to boost power generation and stop importing electricity. – @okazunga.