The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo Senior Business Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (Zera) recently awarded a local company an electricity generation licence to establish a $400 million solar power plant in Marondera.The company, De Green Rhino Energy, was awarded the licence on 24 December last year, to set up a solar farm and this development is expected to ease power shortages in the country.
De Green Rhino Energy chief executive officer Mr Francis Gogwe confirmed the development and said the company was working on completing a number of outstanding issues before commencing the construction of the plant in August.
The solar plant will contribute 50 megawatts to the national electricity grid.
“We got a licence on 24 December last year after the Zera board sat on 18 December and deliberated on our issue and later concluded that we qualify to set up a solar farm.
“There are, however, a few outstanding issues we are working on and these include getting a sovereign guarantee from the Government. The sovereign or Government guarantee will ensure that in case the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) fails to pay us our tariffs, Government will do so,” Mr Gogwe said.
The other issues which are expected to be finalised before commencement of the construction work are the acquisition of a tax exemption certificate, investor’s project or legal due diligence, land registry, grid connection design, Power Purchase Agreement, lender’s due diligence and the financial clause.
“We expect to have dealt with all the outstanding issues by July and then start construction work in August and definitely by July next year we will be commissioning the plant,” Mr Gogwe said.
Sunday Business is in possession of the licence approval letter by Zera chief executive officer Engineer Gloria Magombo addressed to De Green Rhino Energy.
“Please be advised that the licence application was considered and approved by the Zera board at a meeting held on 18th December 2014. However, it is important to note that the licence approval is subject to approval of the tariff that would be charged by De Green Rhino Energy and the power purchase agreement that would be negotiated between De Green Rhino Energy and ZETDC,” read part of the letter.
Zera further advised De Green Rhino Energy to pay licence fees before it issues the generation licence.
De Green Rhino Energy chairman Mr Ishmael Kaguru said the project would go a long way towards addressing power deficit in the country.
“We are happy with the initial tariff negotiations we had with ZETDC and we believe this project will play a pivotal role towards improving productivity in the industry because without adequate power, production levels are significantly affected in various sectors of the economy,” Mr Kaguru said.
Mr Gogwe said the project would create job opportunities and also hinted that solar energy was environmentally friendly as compared to other forms of energy.
“The project will create employment directly. The form of solar energy is also green energy which means it doesn’t lead to any health complications and it doesn’t cause environmental degradation as the case with fossil energy in the form of coal which is dug leaving behind a trail of environmental consequences,” Mr Gogwe said.
