Chronicle Editor
Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
ZIMBABWE has made significant progress in the adoption of renewable energy as the country targets to add more than 2 000MW to the national grid from solar, wind and other sources by 2030.
Work is underway through a partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to come up with an energy efficiency policy whose mandate will be to ensure uptake of energy efficiency measures and efficient lighting systems in manufacturing, mining, agriculture and tourism industries among others.
This is critical as the country strives towards greening the economy in line with global commitments to reduction of emissions.
Government is also working on a framework towards meeting the requirements of the Paris Agreement on climate change and promoting the integration of the Low Emission Development Strategy (LEDS) into planning.
The tourism sector is already geared to enable comprehensive implementation of the Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change (STIZ-NDC) Project (2018-2020).
In an interview following a national dialogue on eco-tourism and renewable energy conference here recently, director of energy conservation and renewable energy in the Ministry of Energy and Power Development, Dr Sosten Ziuku, said the Government was working hard to increase diversification of its energy mix by adopting renewable energies like solar, biogas, wind and biofuels.
A decade ago, the country did not have any grid-tied solar systems but now there is more than 10MW coming from solar systems and supplying power to the grid.
“We are improving the energy mix of our country and adoption of renewable energy technologies by making sure as a ministry that the energy mix in Zimbabwe is diversified by increasingly adopting and accelerating the uptake of renewable energies particularly solar, biogas and other forms such as biofuels,” he said.
“The target for renewable energies is that we should have 2 100MW by 2030 coming from renewable energy and also looking forward to the adoption of wind energy by 2030 with about 100MW or so being fed into the grid mix.
“We are also looking forward to the adoption of at least 250 000 solar geysers by 2030 and we also wish to make sure that by then we will be consistently blending with ethanol and biofuels at two percent.”
Energy efficiency is a key strategy to adopt especially in the tourism industry where operators are faced with huge bills for overhead costs such as water and electricity.
The idea is, if hotels and tour operators switch off some idle lights, air conditioners and refrigeration systems, they can save more than 30 percent of the current costs, which will translate to less charges for tourists who in most cases bear the costs as operators charge exorbitantly to cover their expenses.
Hotels and tour operators usually keep lights, air-cons, fans and fridges on in passages, rooms and offices as they try to maintain favourable temperatures for clients.
Energy experts say this contributes up to 32 percent of the electricity bill.
The Ministry of Energy and Power Development has been engaging the hospitality industry on the issue with a view to capacitate the sector with education on energy efficiency.
“Up to 25 percent of all lighting in a hotel contributes to the electricity bill and if you are energy-efficient in terms of ventilation and refrigeration you again reduce the bill by 32 percent.
“There are benefits for facilities like hotels in adopting energy efficient measures and this reduces running costs and eventually it translates to a low cost for our tourists as they come,” explained Dr Ziuku.
He said the process of formulating the energy efficiency policy started last year with stakeholder consultation workshops and a draft policy expected in the second quarter of next year. — @ncubeleon
Online Reporter