October Thematic Report: Renewable Energy: Zimbabwe's Experience so far.by Natasha Malunga | 31-10-2022 22:02 |
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Moving to renewable energy in line with climate change is a matter of urgency however due to the expansion of industrial activities and increased vehicle ownership, it has proven to be a mammoth task to rapidly transition from using fossil fuels to clean renewable energy. The main challenge that is slowing the transition is the fact that, most of the equipment, expertise and technology required for large scale development or establishment of renewable energy plants is not locally available thus requires huge capital investment which has is basically unconventional for profit seeking business people as well as the government considering that they will have to provide energy for sixteen million people according to our latest 2022 census which was conducted in April. This has led to profit oriented industries as well as the government still continuing to use thermal energy which is bad for the environment but for now proving to be "good" for their "wallets. Additionally, the fact that Zimbabwe is still a developing country means most of the expertise, knowledge, equipment, repair material among other things are still imported which has already been highlighted above, making it very expensive for even an individual to opt for renewable energy such as solar. Riding on this, it then makes sense to state that there is need to first invest in sectors like human capital so that equipment and technical know how of how to install, operate and repair solar, wind or hydro-powered energy generation plants is locally available which will significantly reduce costs. Currently in Zimbabwe, in a bid to encourage people to switch to solar, a number of tax exemption or tax holidays have been introduced to allow people to import and switch to solar however this is unsustainable and more needs to be done to ensure as a country we lower our carbon footprint through vigorous investment in usage of renewable energy which is good for the environment. There is also need for professionals in the engineering and built environment sector to promote development of green energy through design for example design buildings that use mostly natural light, reserve space for solar farms, include bio digester sites on layouts as well as come up with cars, machinery and other equipment that is powered by renewable sources of energy such as wind, water and solar. |
