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HARARE – The Zimbabwe Government will in the next few weeks introduce legislation compelling households with geysers to use those powered by solar as it moves to control consumption of electricity, a cabinet Minister said on Monday.
Officiating the ground breaking ceremony for construction of the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority head offices in the capital, Energy and Power Minister Simon Khaya Moyo said there was need to use solar water geysers as they were energy efficient.
“My Ministry is also promoting the uptake of solar water geysers under the National Solar Water Heating program. In fact, the draft regulations have just come back from the Attorney-General’s Office ready for gazetting, so exciting times are coming. As I said, we are just about to hit the bridge and shake it. The regulations on solar water geysers will be gazetted in the very near future,” he said.
“Usually, when you hear a technocrat saying ‘in the very near future’, be wary of what they mean. But, in this particular instance, we are talking about in the next week or two, certainly not beyond, so it will certainly be in the very near future,” he said.
Khaya Moyo said energy was being wasted unproductively from electric geysers as they consumed more than 40 percent of electricity in households.
“Indications on the ground are that consumers are ready to embrace solar geysers for water heating, as you might be aware electric geysers consume about 40 percent of electricity at household level.
This power is being wasted as it is not being used productively hence the solar geysers initiative,” he said.
In December 2017, the government said it was considering banning all electrical geysers due to their high energy consumption, noting that the country had about 140 000 electrical geysers with the ban envisaged to save at least 280 Mega Watts of electricity on the national grid. – New Ziana
Bongani Ndlovu