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Andile Tshuma, Chronicle Reporter

ENERGY and Power Development Minister Advocate Fortune Chasi is in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates for the triennial World Energy Congress week. 

The 24th edition of the congress kicked off on Monday and ended yesterday. 

The summit is attended by world leaders and policy makers in the field of energy resources. 

Speaking in a telephone interview, the Minister said it was crucial for Zimbabwe to participate at the engagement as it touched on some of the issues that Zimbabwe is battling with, including rising energy needs.

“This is a very important gathering for policy makers. This flagship event of the World Energy Council covers all aspects of the energy agenda. Running since 1924, the triennial World Energy Congress enables dialogue among Ministers, CEOs and industry experts on critical developments in the energy sector,” said Minister Chasi. 

He said the meeting was a platform for the country to meet and engage potential investors in the energy field as it brought together industry experts from around the globe. 

Advocate Chasi said Government is also working on introducing a number of renewable energy projects including putting all the country’s airports under solar power as the country migrates to alternative and sustainable energy.

He said Government was seized with the process of introducing clean energy in the country and was following global trends of adopting solar energy.

“Service stations are to go solar and we will start with Government service stations – Petro Trade and Genesis”, said Minister Chasi.

He said airports would also be solar-powered as they need uninterrupted power supplies.

“Engineers and technical experts are already working on it. We are not going to have solar farms for the airports but the panels will have to be a part of existing infrastructure as we are hit by land constraints, particularly in Harare.

Tourism is one of our major foreign currency earners and power cuts at airports may lead to numbers of international arrivals dwindling. So this issue is supposed to be sorted as soon as yesterday,” said Minister Chasi. 

He said Zimbabwe could not afford to lose out on such engagements as they helped the country learn from leaders in the field. 

“Engagements like this energy congress provide us with a platform to learn and share experiences with other countries, to see what has worked elsewhere and can work for us and to see what will not work for us,” said Minister Chasi. —@andile_tshuma