Zimbabwe, Harare: Zimbabwe intends to generate 100 MW from wind by 2025 and the government is in the process of securing funds for a viable feasibility study.

Government is mobilising additional funds to undertake an assessment on possible sites for wind farms after initial bids for the project markedly exceeded the budget earmarked for the project, according to Energy and Power Development Minister Zhemu Soda.

In 2017, the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) invited bids from interested contractors to carry out a feasibility study on potential sites where wind power stations could be established.

“There were issues of inadequate funds from the previous budget and we are now looking for additional funds to carry out a viable feasibility study which investors can bank on,” said Minister Soda in an interview. “This will help us to meet our target of producing 100 MW from wind farms by 2025.”

The areas where ZERA intends to conduct wind resource measurement include the Middle Veld from the south to the north-eastern part of the country.

The wind assessment programme was driven by a study conducted by the International Renewable Energy Agency in 2015 through the Africa Clean Energy Corridor Programme, which identified solar photovoltaics, concentrating solar power and wind energy zones covering countries in the power pools of Eastern and Southern Africa.

Zimbabwe intends to tap electricity from non-fossil fuels as part of efforts to meet its carbon emissions reduction targets by 2030 and also diversify its energy mix.

The country is a signatory to the Paris climate change accord agreed in 2015, which largely seeks to hold the increase of the global average temperature to below 2 °C. Renewable energy is steadily growing in Africa and some countries have already made significant progress in generating electricity as they move towards green energy projects.

Source: ESI Africa