PPC, one of Zimbabwe’s leading cement manufacturers is tired of having to deal with ZESA’s unrelenting power cuts that often disrupt their production operations. To counter this PPC is instead going to be building a US$43 million mega solar station that will more than cover the company’s power needs. The company has already successfully acquired the required funding and will soon begin building the two solar power stations. One will be located at Umguza close to Bulawayo and another will be at Colleen Bawn near Gwanda.

We are spending roughly about US$43 million for two solar plants, one in Colleen Bawn and the other here in Bulawayo. We have thus concluded the financial closure in the last two weeks so now that it is done you must start seeing some activity on the ground.

We are investing in solar, green energy which is part of our de-carbonisation journey. As a cement producer you are aware that we are notorious for releasing a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

If you look at annual release, we contribute about eight percent of global emissions as cement producers.
Mr Kelibone Masiyane PPC Zimbabwe Managing Director

The two projects are mega in every sense. They will involve the installation of 20 000 solar sun-tracking panels at a farm in Umguza while the power station in Gwanda will see 40 000 sun-tracking solar panels installed. Both project will produce a combined 30 megawatts which will be more than enough to cover the 17 megawatts that PPC needs for its own operations. The remaining 13 megawatts will be fed into the ZESA grid with an eye toward utilising whatever PPC needs internally from this surplus.