Old Mutual Zimbabwe investments into the country’s hydro and solar plants are beginning to pay off as the projects are now delivering 43 megawatts (MW) of electricity to the national grid, it has been revealed.
According to the Zimbabwe Power Company, as of last Thursday, local independent power producers (IPPs) were contributing 73MW to the national grid, making Old Mutual a big player in the country’s push adopt renewable energy sources.
Zimbabwe has 1 600MW to 1 800MW renewable energy generation potential from mostly solar, followed by wind, biogas, and small hydropower energy.
In 2023, Old Mutual invested US$21,5 million into IPP, Centragrid Private Limited, to support its efforts to generate 25MW, which now makes up part of the 43MW.
The remainder is being generated from different IPP projects in the Manicaland, Matabeleland North and South, Masvingo, and Harare Metropolitan provinces.
“We have invested in hydropower and solar plants here, close to here in Victoria Falls, and in Hwange.
“We do have a plant that we have invested in Masvingo, in Matebeleland South, and in several areas close to Harare,” Old Mutual group chief executive officer Samuel Matsekete told Standardbusiness.
“The second level is in terms of how we have supported investments into renewable energy.
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“We have invested in hydro plants, in a hydro plant, for example, in Manicaland.
“So, we are counting now up to 43MW over the recent past that we have actually delivered to the national grid and into the microgrids as well.”
Matsekete said as the group continued with that agenda, it had a pipeline of projects.
“Just recently we are added another two to the pipeline of continuing work that we are embarking on,” he added.
Last Thursday, Zimbabwe was producing 1 416MW of power, of which, 1 091MW was coming from the Hwange Thermal Power Station and 252MW the Kariba Hydro Power Station, on top of the IPP contributions.
“Old Mutual interest in renewable energy has been established over a period now, and we continue that commitment. Perhaps I can talk about that commitment at three levels,” Matsekete said.
“Firstly, within all Old Mutual operations themselves, we seek to uphold responsible business practices, and we are looking at how we can ensure that we are climate-friendly in the ways that we conduct business, and one way is transitioning our sources of energy to renewable and clean energy.”
He said they invested in generating 1,4MW worth of power to feed the group’s headquarters and other major offices.
Old Mutual also revealed that from its US$100 million renewable energy fund, US$21 million had been committed.
“The second level that I would like to talk about is the role that we seek to play as Old Mutual to assist in the gathering of funds or pooling of resources to deploy into infrastructure related to renewable energy,” Matsekete said.
“So, an example that you would see is the launch of the Renewable Energy Fund that we did in the fourth quarter last year,” Matsekete said.
“In this fund, we are partnered with the United Nations departments, or if you like to say, agencies. We are also partnered with the government, and we have got private sector players, private investors, also coming on board.”
He said from the committed funds, US$10 million had already been allocated.
“We are seeking now to make sure that we deploy the balance of what has been committed even as we are growing the fund. It is a blended financing structure, if you like to call it that,” Matsekete added.
If fully supported, the fund could catalyse the scaling up of the funding into renewable energy.
“Then lastly (thirdly), you will see us intervening in terms of how we promote start-ups in the renewable energy value chain,” Matsekete said.
He said the group offers innovation hubs in the renewable energy value chain for startups in that space to present projects that Old Mutual could support.
Zimbabwe has an energy deficit of 1 600MW and this has seen the country suffering from long hours of load shedding that disrupts the economy. Old Mutual is one of the backers of the annual International Renewable Energy Conference and Expo organised by The Standard in partnership with the Ministry of Energy and Power Development.
This year’s edition of the conference was held in Victoria Falls between April 8 and 11 and brought together policy makers, renewable energy experts, financiers and representatives of various countries, among others.
Vice President Contantino Chiwenga, who officially opened the conference on April 9, pledged governments support to ensure seamless integration of renewable energies into the national grid.
Chiwenga was commenting on the country’s new energy efficiency policy, which he launched at the conference.
