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Solar Water Heating System Commissioned

Energy and Power Development Minister, Mr Elton Mangoma has commissioned a Solar Water Heating System at the Harare Institute of Technology, the first of its kind in Zimbabwe

The Pilot Public Solar Water Heating System Project was funded by the Government of the Republic of South Korea through the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) working in collaboration with the Ministry of Energy and Power Development , Public Works, and Higher and Tertiary Education.

Minister Mangoma described this as a memontous project for Zimbabwe as it is the first in history and marked this occasion as very important in the history of energy generation in Zimbabwe. “ It is my great pleasure to be here and sorrounded by a group of people who are passionate about Zimbabwe’s energy development, particularly in the renewable energy sector”, said Minister Mangoma.

He added that the commissioning of the Solar Water Heating System comes at the best time to show the people of Zimbabwe that government is aware of the energy plight, and guided by the forward looking National Energy Policy (NEP), his ministry will discharge its national duty and bring about this key enabler of the government’s vision of a $100 billion economy by 2040 as energy is the key enabler for the creation and promotion of millions of jobs which will ensure that this visional growth is shared by all at the same time preserving our enviroment for future geberations. “We do not inherit land from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. I can not imagine the majority of Zimabweans using firewood in 2040 as a major source of energy. We need to provide modern energy so as to liberate our mothers,wives,sisters and daughters to pursue their dreams” said the Minister.

Minister Mangoma expressed his sincere appreciation to the the Government of the Republic of South Korea for sponsoring this project through the Korea international Cooperation Agency (KOICA). “I hope such spirit of cooperation will grow from strength to strength and encourage other international organisations to join hands with us in promoting the use of clean,renewable energy for the benefit of our future generations. It is my sincere hope that this project does not end at thi pilot stage but that we scale it up to other public institutions through this bilateral cooperation”, he said.

“I would also want this cooperation to grow from strength to strength to ensure sustainability through technology transfer in the energy sector incoporating manufacturing and assembling of the solar energy generating equipment locally”, said minister Mangoma.

Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) has so far installed two Solar Water Heating Systems under this pilot phase, one at the Harare Institute of Technology and another one at the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) with 15 000 and 13 000 litres respectively. Installations of this kind are the first in the country.Besides providing hot water for the two institutions, the one at UBH also provides space heating for incubators in the maternity ward.

Speaking at the same occasiion, His excellency , the South Korean Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Kwang-chu Lew said that more than 1000 people are expected to benefit directly from these two projects which is expected to take us to a new era of solar energy. “As a frind of zimbabwe and the the Zimbabwean people, Korea will ensure that Zimbabwe keep benefiting from cutting edge technology from the Republic of South Korea and we are ready and keen to work together in developing a solar powered Zimbabwe”, he said.

In his message , the Acting Vice Chancellor, Enginner Quinton Kanhukamwe expressed his profound gratitude to the Government of Korea through KOICA, for successfully installing this project, and indeed the Government of Zimbabwe through the Ministry of energy and Power Development for identifying HIT as a beneficiary of this Solar Water Heating system and for professionally guiding the execution of this project.

“As an institution that is at the epicentre of technology development, we are thrilled to be associated with a project which is designed to exploit renewable energy in tandem with the national thrust of reducing dependency on exhaustible sources of energy and let me assure all our stakeholders that HIT will take good care of this project” , he said.

Engineer Kanhukamwe added that the installation of the system comes at a time when the country is robustly pushing for the exploitation of renewable energy to meet national energy demands, and consequently, the university has been given the opportunity to supply hot water to student hostels and the canteen at minimal cost. “This project will drastically reduce our electricity bill and the savings realised from this project, will be deployed to other critical areas. For us at HIT, this project will link well with our Renewable Energy Research Unit. HIT is aggressively pursuing applied research that will result in the development of renewable energy resources technologies with a national impact. Tremendous progress has already been achieved in the development of a Solar Ice-Maker”, he said.

Zimbabwe lies in one of the best solar radiation belts in the world, averaging at 2 100 killwatt hours per square metre per year and 3000 hours, equivalent to 300 days of sunshine per year. However, this resource is currently underutilised. Solar Technology requires that solar energy be produced and stored during the day for use at night and this makes it more expensive. Our situation in Zimbabwe is that electricity is short during the day so there is no need to produce and store.

In this regard, the Government is looking at plan to install Solar Energy Generation plants to feed into the national grid on a produce and consume basis, and the Ministry of Energy and Power Development will soon float a tender for a 100MW Solar Plant before the end of March 2013.

Solar Water Heating System CommissionedSolar Water Heating System CommissionedSolar Water Heating System Commissioned