New alliance to support development of clean energy in Zimbabwe

The meeco Group and William Bain Holdings to stimulate local market sun2flow solar-based water pumping systems

With approximately 300 days of sun per year, wind and several sources of hydropower, Zimbabwe is a country with significant quantities of clean energy resources. Nevertheless Zimbabwe still faces a substantial power deficit – a serious problem that adversely affects all facets of its economy. A new partnership between oursun Energy (Private) Ltd., part of the Swiss-based clean energy provider The meeco Group, and William Bain Holdings, Zimbabwe’s leading manufacturer of agricultural equipment, will push the development in this area

The cooperation is based on the innovative sun2flow solar water-pumping system developed by The meeco Group. sun2flow combines high-end solar panels with water pumping and irrigation devices, which ideally suit remote off-grid areas. Part of meeco’s broad and high-technological product range, sun2flow, fits perfectly farmers’ expectations and needs: The constructions and installations can easily pump water from artificial and natural water reservoirs into distant tanks. The experienced specialists from William Bain Holdings will locally assemble the sun2flow mobile units for the Zimbabwean as well as for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) market, which comprises 15 countries in the region. William Bain will also provide case-by-case support to oursun sun2live projects by manufacturing custom-specific roof and ground-mounting structures via their special casting division. The power units and pumps will arrive preassembled from meeco India (Pvt) Ltd., the subsidiary of The meeco Group in India.
Currently, the process of developing the first locally assembled sun2flow mobile trailer has been launched. As soon as this is completed, the product will be positioned on the market for gauging its potential.
“Solar power has enormous energy generation capacity that also can be tapped for sustainable economic growth and helps to bridge the current power deficit in the country”, shares Simbarashe Mhuriro, Director of oursun Energy (Private) Ltd. and in charge of the solution for Zimbabwe. “With this project and partnership The meeco Group as a multinational player in the clean energy market wants to support the growth of small to medium scale agriculture businesses, provide energy to rural communities and create as much local content as possible. To stimulate the local manufacturing industry most of our components for our installations will be produced locally. We envision to reach a total energy capacity of 230MWp within the next 4 – 5 years and thus become an important Independent Power Producer in Zimbabwe and certainly as well in the region.”

The new Managing Director of William Bain Holdings, Graeme Smith, is already proficient in Green Energy by managing the successful Zimbabwean Green Fuel Project since the beginning. “Working with Graeme Smith will prove invaluable benefits”, says Simbarashe Mhuriro. “Together with William Bain we are looking forward to developing a local energy product – sun2flow mobile – which is Swiss/German engineered and will also be produced in Zimbabwe.”

By partnering with local companies like William Bain, oursun Energy (Private) Ltd. is looking forward to passing on skills, stimulating local manufacturing as well as generating employment and supporting the government ZIMASSET (Zimbabwean Agenda for Socio-Economic Sustainable Transformation) programme, which was launched in 2013 to set renewable and energy efficiency targets. ZIMASSET aims at increasing the use of renewable energy resources by 300 megawatts by 2018.

About The meeco Group: The meeco Group was consolidated in 2000 and oriented its main focus towards the energy sector. With world headquarters located in Zug, Switzerland, the group currently has over 50 employees working across 4 continents. Thanks to a structured but flexible approach based on its core competencies, meeco has delivered over 320 MW of clean, renewable energy solutions across four continents. The meeco Group accomplishes its mission by providing project developers, investors, governments, and private businesses with the services necessary for timely financing, installation, and operation of clean energy assets.