The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Business Reporter
AN independent power producer, Co-Ash Resources (CAR) is planning to establish a 250 megawatt (MW) thermal power station in Hwange this year, an official has said.
CAR group chief executive officer Dr Cathbert Dutiro said the company is working towards finalising a financial closure with its partners for the construction of the $650 million power plant project.
CAR intends to establish a 250MW Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) Thermal Power Plant in the Hwange area expanding to 1 gigawatt (GW) over the next 10 years.
“CAR has been finalising project bankability of its Hwange 250MW induction plasma plant with regional DFI (Development Finance Institution) banks after the introduction of the bond notes derailed the implementation programme. We expect to finalise that with co-development technical partners, General Electric, Vallinger and Group Five for expected implementation in June 2017,” said Dr Dutiro.
He said the company would start by constructing a 50MW before the end of the year.
“We will kick start with a 50MW plant of $90 million,” said Dr Dutiro.
He said the main objective of the project was to construct a combined cycle, environmentally friendl and highly efficient advanced plasma fired thermal plant that would supply a significant amount of power to the nation utilising waste power coal fines that have been and are continuously an environmental hazard in the coal mining operations in Hwange.
The technology is a globally accepted form of waste management which is already being used in developed countries such as the United Kingdom and France to generate power.
Zimbabwe is experiencing a power deficit and this has been identified as one of the top priority areas for the Government in its bid to resuscitate the economy.
The Government, through the Zimbabwe Power Company, has embarked on several projects to bridge the energy deficit such as expanding existing power stations and building new ones.
@DNsingo
