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COP26 in Glasgow is just a few weeks away. Market Access and Trade Policy Officer at the British Embassy in Harare, David Gate sat down energy markets export Lion Mashiri to talk about promoting green growth in Zimbabwe. Here’s the full interview:
DAVID GATE:
Through water and agriculture programmes like the Rural WASH or the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund (ZRBF), the UK is funding the installation and promotion of solar-powered water supply and irrigation systems.
The UK is also working with the government and businesses to improve conditions that increase investment in renewable energy while supporting UK investments into sectors hydro and solar.
The UK supported Africa Clean Energy (ACE) programme is working on improving a market-based approach for private-sector delivery of renewable energy electrification technologies, with a specific focus on high quality stand-alone solar systems.
Here’s what we’ve achieved together so far;
– Development, adoption and implementation of quality standards for stand-alone solar systems
– Review of Statutory Instrument (SI) 78 of 2021 resulting in 0% import duty on home solar systems
– Development of a Solar customs handbook to guide ZIMRA officers, clearing agencies and the private sector and;
– Support to local businesses that helped in providing access to electricity to 20,000 rural homes through household solar home systems.
I would like you to hear more about the energy situation and potential for the future from Zimbabwean Lion Mashiri who has extensive experience in power trading in the Southern Africa region.
LION MASHIRI:
Zimbabwe’s clean energy portfolio could include Solar, hydro, biomass, geothermal, and wind, with solar and hydro potentially the largest renewable energy sources.
Zimbabwe has one of the highest solar potentials in the region, with annual sunshine hours averaging 8.3 hours per day and average irradiation at between 4.8 and 6.8 kWh/m2/day.
In fact, more than 50% of the country, covering Matabeleland North, Midlands, Mashonaland West, and some parts of Mash East could for generate more than 6kWh/m2/day.
There is huge potential for additional large scale hydropower generation along the Zambezi. However, quicker to deploy would be small and mini hydros similar to what we find in the Eastern Highlands and some dams like Siya Dam in Masvingo.
The slow uptake of clean energy, in particular solar, is partly due to the influx of very poor-quality products for rooftop solar and pico scale products. This has dampened confidence in the technology.
Small IPPs also find that they can only sell their power through the national utility as an off-taker, an arrangement many financiers shy away from due to the payment risk associated with national utilities in the region.
Finally, the need for bankable PPAs cannot be overemphasised. So players in the industry have to come together with fiscal authorities and forge a way past the bankability of projects.
DAVID GATE:
What I’m hearing from Lion is that there is a need for an industry-wide approach. For instance:
Mini grids and solar home systems are a more viable and quicker option as they reduce the time needed for set-up and operationalisation as is the case in large capacity power projects. So, focusing on small projects of 5 or 10MW distributed across the network can achieve quick jumps.
From a regulatory point of view, only those products passing quality assurance standards should be allowed into the country with tax and duty exemptions as incentives. Existing exemptions should also be clarified.
From this point, small IPPs, due to their size, face further challenges when they want to export their power. How do they secure space in the sector and what is the role of the regulator, and intermediaries? How do they inspire confidence in potential financiers?
**Lion Mashiri wields over 20 years of extensive experience in power trading in the Southern African region. His areas of expertise span power market rules development and systems as well as statistical analysis and quantitative modelling. Lion has also served on select committees and advisory bodies on electricity power markets in Southern Africa including his most recent role as an electricity market advisor for the World Bank.