- Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister, Mthuli Ncube, has announced incentives to attract 1000MW (about US$1 billion) from independent power producers (IPP’s).
- After decades without any new build capacity plus a gradual deterioration of power plants and transmission infrastructure due to poor maintenance, management and corruption, Zimbabwe today finds itself in a desperate energy crisis.
- Its citizens face up to 19 hours of blackouts daily as Kariba hydro dam dries up along with foreign currency to buy power from its neighbours. Read more
With the country bankrupt and no sovereign debt cover provided by government for renewable energy projects, IPP’s have stayed well away from developing solar projects in Zimbabwe. Ncube wants to turn this around by guaranteeing viable tariffs and power purchase agreements.
“A key ingredient to the successful implementation of the solar IPPs projects is a bankable government implementation agreement with an economic tariff,” said Ncube on Monday in a press statement delivered through the local government controlled daily newspaper, The Herald. He added that the central bank would also guarantee the payment of dividends and foreign loan repayments to external investors and lenders.
Ncube said the guarantees would cover 27 solar power projects with sizes ranging from 5MW to 100MW and a cumulative capacity of 998MW at a cost of US$1 billion.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
1 Comment
If I was the investor I would put up the solar plant in Botswana. Bots is politically and economicaly stable. Then from Bots they can sell the power to Bots, SA , Zim and Zam.
Regards