The Sunday News
Judith Phiri , Business Reporter
THE Permanent Secretary for Energy and Power Development, Dr Gloria Magombo has said there is a need to develop smart energy solutions as the country adopts and develops smart cities and rural communities.
A smart city is a municipality, where digital technology and green-energy innovations are central to the provision of better services for residents and businesses.
In Zimbabwe, the Smart City concept is expected to generate the much-needed investments expected to boost economic growth towards the targeted upper middle-income status by 2030.
Speaking at the 2nd Financing Zimbabwe Smart Cities and Rural Connect Conference on Tuesday in Bulawayo, Dr Magombo said smart cities were critical for the national vision.
“You cannot speak about smart cities without sustainable energy it’s one of those critical things. as a Ministry, we have a vision that speaks to the national vision of an upper middle-income economy by 2030.
“As people start developing smart cities, we want them to come up with smart energy solutions as well, because with the energy transition, you can provide your own energy resource and be self-sufficient but what you will need is obviously funding,” said De Magombo.
She said as a Ministry their role in line with Vision 2030, was to ensure that the vision is achieved by ensuring that there was universal access to sustainable and modern energy by 2030.
The Permanent Secretary said they were creating an enabling environment that will allow for the effective participation of various parties within the sector through effective policies, regulatory frameworks and laws in collaboration with the Parliament of Zimbabwe.
Dr Magombo added: “Smart energy is about efficient use of energy and that efficient use can only be achieved if we monitor it. It’s all about data and Geographic Information System (GIS) being able to measure something for you to be able to say it’s smart, without any measurement it cannot be smart.”
She said the country had various energy policies, while some spoke to the efficient use of energy and others to renewable energy technologies.
The Permanent Secretary said the energy sector was in a transition and there were a lot of new technologies which have not been explored, while the new technologies will change and revolutionise the use of energy.
“Within the renewable energy policy, we have set up the targets for renewable energy we want to achieve as a country by 2030. We are targeting to generate 2 100 megawatts of clean energy by 2030. It also provides for a number of incentives for renewable energy projects, some of those incentives are the ones seen in giving of the prescribed access status for some of the projects.”
Dr Magombo called upon Rural District Councils (RDCs) to identify the critical resources they have from an energy point of view that can be critical in the development of smart cities.
The conference which was held on the sidelines of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF), running under the theme: “Innovative financing solutions of the cities and rural communities ecosystem post Covid-19 pandemic” was organised by a financial advisory firm, Deat Capital.
Deat Capital is a Zimbabwe trade and investment firm. Their focus is on development of smart cities, renewable energy projects, end to end logistics solutions, logistics infrastructure and management in Southern Africa.
