By Wallace Mawire
As Zimbabwe aims to move with the rest of the world in adopting
renewable and clean energy solutions, a new association, the Renewable
Energy Association of Zimbabwe (REAZ) has been formed to advance
alternative and clean energy solutions for energy deprived
communities.
According to Simba Sibanda, REAZ Inaugural Secretary, the association
aims to be a reputable umbrella association, supporting and enabling
the sustainable growth of the renewable energy sector throughout
Zimbabwe and beyond.
“Our mission is to promote all forms of renewable energy technologies
into the mainstream of the Zimbabwean economy and lifestyle by
emphasizing the need for quality and best practice throughout the
sector in a sustainable manner for the benefit of members, consumers
and other stakeholders,” Sibanda said.
The objectives of the association are also to provide a platform for
the promotion and development of renewable energy technologies in
Zimbabwe, establish working relationships with similar national and
international organizations for the purposes of enhancing the
objectives of the association, facilitating information dissemination
for the benefit of the public and the membership, formulating
proposals for improvements in the renewable energy sector and making
recommendations to the responsible authorities.
Other initatives will include participating in resource mobilization
on behalf of stakeholders of renewable energy projects, promoting
technology transfer,promoting sound business practices and
standardization of products within the sector and promoting the local
manufacture of renewable energy products and enterprise development.
In trying to promote renewable and clean energy solutions, Zimbabwe
has adopted global initiatives like the Power for All campaign which
seeks to promote distributed renewable
energy (DRE) as the key to achieving universal energy access faster,
cheaper and in a more sustainable manner.
The campaign provides platform to share information, and provides
tools to accelerate the
growth of the DRE market.
According to a document released by Zimbabwe’s Energy Regional
Organisation (ZERO), energy is central to sustainable development and
is an enabler to health, education, agriculture and improving the
nation’s economy at large.
The “Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL)” initiative, launched in
2010 by the UN Secretary General, established three ambitious global
objectives to be accomplished by 2030:
-to ensure universal access to modern energy services,
-to double the global rate of improvement in global energy efficiency, and
-to double the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix.
The initiative envisions a multi-stakeholder approach as being
critical to its success, with government, the private sector, and
civil society as its three ‘pillars’.
Zimbabwe is one of the countries which opted in implementing the
SE4ALL Initiative- embracing the global policy and integrate it into
local policies. A key pathway associated with opting in is that the
country has to carry out country action plans. Of the four ‘Country
Action’, Zimbabwe is reported to have completed the first three.
