Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. HARARE, May 5 (NewsDayLive) – Surrey Group, one of Zimbabwe’s leading privately-owned livestock and agriculture businesses, is investing in a 1.8 MW solar project to provide power back-up at its abattoirs and shops in Marondera.
The company said the decision to invest in solar energy was informed by the quest to maintain the cold chain and deliver safe food to the public in light of erratic power supplies from Zesa.
Several companies have invested in solar power plants as national power utility Zesa struggles to satisfy national demand.
Surrey Group chairman Philip de Chassart said the solar plant has been net metered by the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company.
“The solar plant is new and we are excited about it, we are pretty sure that this initiative will enhance power efficiency and provide operational advantages in terms of cost savings and we also believe that we are going to have more continuous power to sustain us in our business,” de Chassart said.
“We have looked at the cost of diesel and it was becoming too expensive for us to sustain this business where we use about 1MW every day and ZESA has been unreliable on our operations and we have decided to invest in renewable energy.
“So we have a solar which is roughly two hectares of solar power, then solar power feeds into our land which is the beef and chicken abattoirs and to operate in our shops as well. On a sunny day, the solar produces basically 100% of our power requirements and if there are clouds, we use Zesa or generators for back up.”
For More News And Analysis About Zimbabwe Follow Africa-Press
