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Lovemore Zigara Midlands Correspondent
GWERU Technical College has embarked on a biogas plant for its heating requirements as it seeks to reduce its energy bill by about 40 percent. The biogas project, which is expected to be commissioned in August will be set up at a cost of $15,000 and will be used at the college’s kitchen, which is the major consumer of electricity at the institution.

The principal, Washington Chandiwana told Business Chronicle that the project will satisfy the college’s heating requirements and the surplus will be packaged for sale to the locals.

“Everything being equal we should have the biogas plant, which is being set up by our own students before August this year. “This will reduce our power bill by about 40 percent.

“This means we’ll no longer resort to the use of firewood if there’s no electricty,” he said. Council is expected to provide the sewage for the biogas project.

Chandiwana said the college had set up a special fund to meet the costs of innovation projects inline with the country’s economic blueprint, Zim-Asset which seeks to promote beneficiation and value addition.

Students representative council president, Alington Mudzingwa, said a committee of students has been set up to spearhead innovations at the institution.

“We want to ensure that we’re one of the leading colleges in the country when it comes to innovations that are relevant to the college and country’s economic needs,” he said.

The latest innovation by the college comes as the government announced plans to ban the use of electric geysers that will be replaced by solar water heaters.

The country is facing a shortage of electricity as a result of low power generation capacity, a development which saw Sable Chemicals, which consumes about 35 percent of the country’s electricity, being ordered to shut down its electrolysis plant.