Zimbabwe needs new social contract for solar power rollout
This article was originally published by New Zimbabwe on 12th August 2024.THE Zimbabwean government is racing against time to meet the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 7: affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030.
However, the race towards green energy is top-down and mostly privatised. New technology is being introduced or sold to individuals or small families, but renewable energy is not being made part of a decent life for the entire community.
Sustainable transitions researchers Ellen Fungisai Chipango and Long Seng To have researched ways to use the communal ethic of African ubuntu, expressed as “a person is a person through other persons”, in the rollout of renewable energy.
What are the competing views of sustainable development?
Zimbabwe’s National Renewable Energy Policy aims to promote investment in the uptake of renewable energy technologies, especially off-grid solutions in rural areas.
Both private sector independent power producers in the solar sector and development agencies have set up some renewable energy projects in the rural areas.
