President Hakainde Hichilema has set a target of 1000 megawatts electricity generation from solar energy by the end of the year.
President Hichilema said the current energy deficit that the country is currently facing can be quickly addressed through solar explosion and has tasked all stakeholders in the energy sector to work towards generation of 10,000 megawatts of electricity from solar, starting with 1000 megawatts by the end of the year 2025.
“As with the 3 million target for Copper production, we need 10,000 megawatts for power generation, which is 10gigawatts. Those are the targets we should be setting for ourselves. Starting with 1000 megawatts for this year,” he said.
Speaking during an energy engagement with public and private stakeholders at State house today, the President also encouraged financial institutions in attendance to support the initiatives set by ZESCO and other players in the industry to improve electricity supply to the country, which he said will help grow the economy and ultimately their profitability.
In the same meeting, President Hichilema also recognised and pledged to support a Mporokoso based Hydro power generation project by Chileshe Mubanga which is currently generating about 300 kilowatts of electricity to increase their capacity to possibly supply power to the entire Mporokoso town.
And Minister of Energy Makozo Chikote disclosed that the Ministry has formulated a road map for the recovery of the energy deficit in the country and that the immediate initiative is the Solar Explosion.
Mr Chikote said the rooftop solar solutions is the top priority as it will easily contribute to net metering and has called for the private sector and financial institutions to work with the Ministry to effectively implement the initiative.
Earlier, ZESCO Managing Director Justin Loongo shared that the country currently has a power deficit of about 1,400 megawatts created by the insufficient rainfall for hydro generation.
Mr Loongo highlighted that with the recently signed power purchase agreements and the expected power generation of 500 megawatts from their various solar plants across the country will enable the corporation to ease the burden of load shedding by the end of the year.
He further expressed confidence that the Green City initiative will help alleviate the energy deficit further and disclosed that the Corporation will need about 25 million dollars to implement the solar projects.
