Chinese firm, Power Giants ink power deal

CLOUDINE MATOLA AND SIFISO MAPURANGA

GNEE, a Chinese firm  has signed a multi-million dollar solar agreement  with Power Giants Private Limited of Zimbabwe,  as part of efforts to  alleviate Zimbabwe’s power crisis.

The agreement was signed on Friday in the capital, Harare.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, GNEE CEO, Wan Ke said the company  will assist Zimbabwe  in developing its electricity infrastructure.

The company has also  made investments in 40 countries, including Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia and Ghana.

“Similarly, in Zimbabwe, we will support the development of electricity (infrastructure). We will first construct solar power generation projects to ease the shortage of electricity in Zimbabwe,” Wang said.

He added: “We will apply China’s most advanced solar products and technologies to the solar power generation project in Zimbabwe.

We will also use our best project management team and construction team to ensure that the project will be put into operation as soon as possible.”

Power Giants CEO, Dr Edzai Kachirekwa said the two companies are going to start with a 300 megawatts (MW) project that will feed into the national grid.

The project will be done in stages, he said.

“As Power Giants and GNEE we decided to start with a 300MW solar project,” Dr Kachirekwa said.

He added: “It will be done in phases. Once we complete the first 50MW, we synchronize it into the national grid until we reach 300MW within the next two years.

We will, however, increase the power output to approximately 2000MW by 2026. The figure will be increased to 4 000MW by 2028.

“The national grid in Zimbabwe will never be the same again as we have decided to make sure that we support His Excellency (President Emmerson Mnangagwa) in all his strategies. There is no country which can operate without adequate energy because energy is the backbone for industry.”

“What we basically want to do is to make sure that each province is energy sufficient, generating its own power. We are looking at decentralization of the national grid.

“We are going to see this country becoming energy sufficient and exporting energy to our neighbours.”