The government has invested $1,5 million for the production of solar lamps locally as it moves to alternative power sources.
Energy and Power Development minister Elton Mangoma last week said the government had struck a deal with a housing co-operative in Mutare allowing them to have solar panels as part of their roofs.
“The electricity generated will be used within their homes and the surplus fed into the grid. At night the homes will then be supplied by Zesa. At the end of the month, the account will then be settled depending on the power produced and consumed,” Mangoma said.
He said the solar policy would be extended to anyone although it may be more applicable to new housing complexes as panels would be part of the cost of the roof and therefore no extra investment would be required.
Mangoma said the rural electrification agency would produce solar lamps locally for $10 or less working with the local industry to ensure that there was significant value addition in the project.
“Treasury has provided $1,5 million to this project, which will enable particularly schoolchildren to buy these lamps in installments. The involvement of industry means that a lot more solar lamps can be produced for commercial purposes to be made available to the generality of the public,” he said.
Mangoma last week announced the plan by the government to disband Zesa Holdings and form a new State-owned entity National Grid Services Company as it seeks to come up with permanent solutions to the country’s power challenges.
The new company will be responsible for transmission, market and systems operation. It will also be expected to create space for independent power producers.
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“It is proposed to restructure Zesa to make it more efficient and responsive to the consumers, while at the same time, setting up a mechanism, which will make it easy for independent power producers to have a level playing field.
“Zesa Holdings was supposed to be only an instrument of holding shares in the successor companies. Instead it morphed into a huge bureaucracy negating the very point of establishing successor companies. In 2002 the transmission business was legislated to be separate from distribution, only to be reversed later,” Mangoma said.
