The Colleen Bawn Solar Power Station is a

solar power Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic e ...

plant under development in

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

. The project is owned by Pretoria Portland Cement Limited, who own a cement factory in

Colleen Bawn Colleen Bawn is a town in Zimbabwe. Location Colleen Bawn is located in Gwanda District, in Matabeleland South Province, in southwest Zimbabwe. It is approximately , by road, east of Gwanda, the provincial and district headquarters. This is ...

and plan to consume 16 megawatts of the electricity generated and sell the rest to the Zimbabwe national grid.

Location

The power station is located in the town of Colleen Bawn, Gwanda District, in

Matabeleland South Province Matabeleland South is a province in southwestern Zimbabwe. With a population of 683,893 as of the 2012 Zimbabwean census, it is the country's least populous province. After Matabeleland North, it is Zimbabwe's second-least densely populated p ...

, approximately , by road, east of

Gwanda Gwanda is a town in Zimbabwe. It is the capital of the province of Matabeleland South, one of the ten administrative provinces in the country. It is also the district capital of Gwanda District, one of the seven administrative districts in t ...

, the location of the district and provincial headquarters. Colleen Bawn is approximately , by road, southeast of

Bulawayo Bulawayo (, ; Ndebele: ''Bulawayo'') is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and the largest city in the country's Matabeleland region. The city's population is disputed; the 2022 census listed it at 665,940, while the Bulawayo City Council cl ...

, Zimbabwe's second-largest city. The factory would sit adjacent of PPC's cement factory in Colleen Bawn.

Overview

The power station is designed to have capacity of 32 megawatts. The cement factory is expected to consume 16 megawatts. The remaining output is expected to be sold directly to the ''Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company'' (ZETDC) for integration into the national grid, under a long-term

power purchase agreement A power purchase agreement (PPA), or electricity power agreement, is a contract between two parties, one which generates electricity (the seller) and one which is looking to purchase electricity (the buyer). The PPA defines all of the commercial te ...

Developers

The power station is being developed by a Zimbabwean power development investor, with technical partners in South Africa. The

consortium A consortium (plural: consortia) is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for ...

of developers is expected to be revealed when all funding arrangements have been completed. The developers were selected out of a field of 38 companies that responded to the tender. The developers of the power station will operate it, on behalf of the owners. In May 2022, ''Afrik21.africa'' reported that the development contract was awarded to ''CentraWest''. The construction contractor is a

Sinohydro Sinohydro (Chinese: 中国水电; long form: 中国水利水电建设集团公司) is a Chinese state-owned hydropower engineering and construction company. In the 2012 Engineering News-Record Top 225 Global Contractors, a ranking by annual reve ...

of China and ''African Transmission Corporation Holdings'' (ATC), "a consultancy firm specializing in infrastructure projects". The cost of construction is budgeted at US$40 million.

Construction

It is expected that once construction starts, it will take eighteen months to complete the power station. Construction began in May 2022 with commercial commissioning anticipated in the fourth quarter of 2023. In May 2022, it was disclosed that a battery energy storage system (BESS) of 9MW/18MWh will be incorporated in the design.

References

External links