The City of Harare has intensified its use of renewable energy as it plans to add more solar powered lights from Borrowdale Racecourse to Sam Levy’s village. This was according to the Minister of State for Harare Metropolitan Province, Honourable Mirriam Chikukwa. To date more than 65 solar lights have already been installed along the Robert Mugabe Way from Rotten Row to Sam Nujoma street as well as along the Airport Road.
“79 lights have been installed along Borrowdale Road from Churchill Road to the RaceCourse and 80 holes excavated from the Racecourse to Sam Levy’s Village – 20 holes are pending.” said Chikukwa.
Adding to this are 21 holes which were excavated along Simon V.Muzenda street; Robert Mugabe to Central Avenue and 4 holes are pending the Minister said.
Besides the increase in the number of solar lights, the Capital is also working on a 800 cubic Biogas Plant, which is currently under construction in the Matapi Area in Mbare. The Plant is expected to help towards managing the looming Waste Management disaster in the city.
As of February, Harare’s thermal power station, which has a capacity of producing more than 50MW, was producing 3,55 percent of electricity in the country. Zimbabwe, which is producing 1620 MW according to the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) website, has got the capacity to produce 10 gigawatts of electricity annually from renewable energy if harnessed well.
These efforts while somewhat isolated are a welcome change to the energy hungry metropolis of Harare which statistically caters to a minimum of 3 Million citizens daily.
