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In an economy where only 20% of the population has access to sustainable, modern energy services, even according to government data, access campaigners see considerable upside for pay-as-you-go (PAYG) solar solutions. The Power for All Zimbabwe advocacy group sees huge potential, but estimates the off-grid sector’s market penetration at only 3%. According to sources canvassed by African Energy, the limited availability of finance for operators and consumers is stifling the sector’s potential as Zimbabwe looks to significantly improve its services delivery in the post-Mugabe period.

The interim government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa has modified the contentious Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act in a significant policy shift that will see the 51/49 indigenisation threshold being applied only to diamonds and platinum mining, leaving all other sectors of the economy open to investors of any nationality. The amendment was announced on 7 December in a budget statement by finance and economic development minister Patrick Chinamasa.

The Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) says spillway refurbishment works for the Kariba dam have entered the procurement phase, with a tender expected to be launched in December, paving the way for the works contract to be awarded by mid-2018.ZRA chief executive Munyaradzi Munodawafa said progress on the Kariba Dam Rehabilitation Project (KDRP) was steady, with the plunge pool in the implementation phase and spillway refurbishment works under procurement.

Off-grid solar start-up Zonful Energy says it has connected 3,480 households under a pay-as-you-go-solar credit scheme in rural Zimbabwe that is being rolled out from a $50,000 loan sourced from US non-profit lender Kiva. Chief executive William Ponella said his company, which launched the country’s first known pay-as-you-go-solar credit scheme in March in partnership with mobile giant Econet Wireless, aimed to switch on about 380,000 households by 2020.

The protracted resignation of Robert Mugabe was met with relief and elation in Zimbabwe, and much further afield by those who have seen one of Africa’s most promising countries driven into misery by the former guerrilla fighter’s capricious 37-year rule. Many Zimbabweans of all political tendencies celebrated the prospect that “it is our time now”, rather than facing the prospect that the 93-year-old president may force his wife Grace Mugabe on the country.

Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) has applied to borrow $310m from the Indian government to extend the life of Hwange thermal power station. The power generation company said it was developing request for proposal documents for the life extension project. Hwange is the largest of Zimbabwe’s four coal-fired power stations, with 920MW of installed capacity made up of 4x120MW and 2x220 MW units.“An application for a $310m line of credit was made to the government of India through Zesa Holdings.

A community-owned 99kW solar mini-grid is providing power to the Mashaba community in Gwanda district, an arid rural enclave in Zimbabwe’s Matabeleland South region. The 99kW Mashaba power plant, the country’s first such project, was implemented by Practical Action Southern Africa and its partners SNV Netherlands Development Organisation and Zimbabwe’s Dabane Trust under Practical Action’s Sustainable Energy for Rural Communities (SE4RC) project, whose goal is to ensure universal access to modern energy services in rural areas of Malawi and Zimbabwe.

The Kupinga mini-hydropower plant in Chipinge in the eastern province of Manicaland has started generating electricity, state-owned daily The Herald reported on 7 August. The run-of-river facility in the Rusitu River catchment area is generating at 92% of its capacity but is expected to start operating at its full installed capacity of 1.65MW by year-end. The project has been developed and is owned and operated by Kupinga Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of South African financial services group Old Mutual, under a 25-year licence issued in 2014 by the Zimbabwe Energy Regulating Authority.

Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (Zera) confirmed in early June that the beleaguered Zimbabwe Electricity Distribution Company (ZETDC) has applied for a tariff review for 2017, citing increases in the cost of power production. Zera acting chief executive Misheck Siyakatshana said a decision on the tariff review would have to wait until an audit of the utility’s operations and structures by Deloitte & Touche is completed. ZETDC is the transmission and distribution subsidiary of Zesa Holdings.

Standard Bank as mandated lead arranger has finalised a $120m debt package with Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) for the rehabilitation of the Hwange and Kariba South power plants. Standard Bank partnered the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (PTA Bank) to deliver the financing, which was a continuation of a previous funding arrangement with ZPC that went towards its contribution to the 300MW expansion of Kariba South.

The Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (Sefa), which is administrated by the African Development Bank (AfDB), has approved a $965,000 grant to Oxygen Energy to support the preparation of a bankable business case for the development of an off-grid solar photovoltaic rooftop project totalling 20MW on buildings owned and managed by Old Mutual Property Group Zimbabwe. The project aims to compensate for lapses in grid power and to provide reliable electricity to hundreds of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that are already tenants at the Old Mutual premises.

China’s ZTE Corporation has completed the feasibility study for Zimbabwe Power Company’s (ZPC) Insukamini solar project, and is finalising an application for a concessional loan from the Export-Import Bank of China, the Herald reported. ZPC and ZTE signed a contract for the construction of the 100MW Insukamini solar project in October 2015. ZTE said at the time that it planned to set up a solar equipment manufacturing facility in Zimbabwe.

Energy and power development minister Samuel Undenge has promised that power shortages should be resolved by the end of 2018. His optimism arises from projections, also included in the 2016 annual report by the Southern African Power Pool, that Zimbabwe will produce 4,500MW once extensions at Kariba South and Hwange, the Batoka Gorge hydro scheme, rehabilitation of thermal power stations, and planned greenfield projects are completed between 2017 and 2022.

Engineering services company Penspen has won a contract from Petrozim Line to provide engineering, procurement services, construction and commissioning supervision for the latest phase of capacity expansion of the Feruka-Harare multiproduct pipeline. Penspen, which installed the original pipeline and has carried out a study for the expansion project over the last six years, will provide its services at three separate sites, Feruka, Wilton and Harare.

Rehabilitation work on the Kariba Dam is expected to start in May after Zimbabwe and Zambia signed a $294.2m financing deal with the European Union and World Bank in mid February. The project, which is also funded by the Swedish government and African Development Bank (AfDB) through a mix of loans and grants, entails reshaping the dam’s plunge pool and refurbishing the six spillway gates.