跳至主要内容

Preparations for construction of 2400MW Batoka Gorge Hydropower Plant move a gear up

 

                                                     

The Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) disclosure process for the 4.5 billion U.S.  

dollars Batoka Gorge Hydro-Electric Scheme (BGHES) has been completed, paving the way for the 

implementation of the project, an official said Thursday.

Chairperson of the Zambezi River Authority Council of Ministers, Zhemu Soda, who is also Zimbabwean Minister of Energy and Power Development, made the disclosure during the 38th Council of Ministers virtual meeting held Thursday.

"It is encouraging to learn that most of the preparatory works for the implementation of the scheme have been completed. This includes the updating of the 1993 engineering feasibility studies and the undertaking of the environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) studies which have culminated in the production of a draft ESIA report.

"In line with the environmental legal framework of the two contracting states and international best practice, the ESIA report was placed in the public domain in March 2020 as part of the public disclosure process and this was concluded on 25th January 2021," Soda said.

He said upon the conclusion of the ESIA report public disclosure phase, the report will be updated taking into consideration stakeholder inputs.

"We accordingly look forward to the final ESIA report that should map the way forward in ensuring the sustainable implementation of this 4.5 billion U.S. dollars project," he said.

Soda added that apart from introducing over 4,000 direct and 6,000 in-direct jobs, the mega project will generate revenue of over 750 million U.S. dollars annually, which will consequently enhance the GDP of Zimbabwe and Zambia.

In 2019, a consortium of Power Construction Corporation of China and U.S. firm General Electric won a bid to build the 2,400 MW hydropower station under a Build, Operate and Transfer funding model.

The power generated from the plant will be shared equally by the two countries.

The Zambezi River Authority is an organization jointly owned by the governments of Zambia and Zimbabwe mandated with managing the Kariba Dam, providing water for hydro-power generation as well as facilitating and overseeing the development of infrastructure along the Zambezi River for the benefit of the two countries.

"Our two governments remain committed to ensuring that the peoples of the republics of Zambia and Zimbabwe draw equal social and economic benefits from the development of the BGHES and indeed other projects under the Authority's water storage infrastructure development plans covering other dam sites located along the stretch of the Zambezi river forming a common border between the two sister republics," Soda said.

Xinhua


标签：

评论

发表评论

此博客中的热门博文

Bill Gates-led Fund Invests in Startup That Built a New Hydropower Turbine

                                           https://www.boland-hydroturbine.com/ Hydropower—converting moving water into energy—is the single biggest source of clean power in the world, but relies on a 200-year-old technology that hasn't changed all that much. Natel Energy Inc., a California-based hydro power startup, has developed a new turbine that updates that technology, and now the company is raising $11 million in a funding round led by Schneider Electric Ventures and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a fund helmed by Bill Gates. The turbine lowers the construction cost of power plants, because it requires less cement and steel. It also allows for safer passage for fish, which has become a stringent environmental regulation for these types of projects in both the U.S. and Europe. Natel Energy was started by two engineers and siblings, Gia a...
发表评论
阅读全文

How we can save hydropower

                                        marketing@boland-hydroturbine.com Hydropower is the world’s third largest source of electricity and provides around 70% of the world’s renewable energy. However, dams – the traditional way we’ve harvested energy from water – are not as sustainable as you might think, disrupting the ecosystems within and around rivers, reducing biodiversity, and messing with water quality. Now, researchers are trying to find a way to make hydropower more environmentally friendly. “It’s only recently that people have started to realize that these dams fill up with sediment, that they are structurally unsound, some of them, and that something needs to be done with them,” says Carlos Garcia de Leaniz of Swansea University in Wales. But the world needs energy, and compared to other forms of renewable energy, hydropower is both flexib...
发表评论
阅读全文

Baihetan Hydropower Station set to help with China’s carbon goal

  The Baihetan Hydropower Station has officially started storing water as the gate of number two diversion bottom hole closed on April 6, meaning the world's largest hydropower project under construction has taken a critical step toward the goal for the first batch of hydropower units to start generating electricity on July 1.  With the closing of the gate, the reservoir water level began to rise from 655 meters, according to a statement from Sinohydro Engineering Bureau 8 Co, adding that the reservoir water level will be stored to 775 meters in mid-June to meet the conditions for the first batch of hydropower-generating units to start operation. From August to September, the reservoir water will be stored to 800 meters, and then gradually stored to the normal storage level of 825 meters in June 2022. The total storage capacity of Baihetan Reservoir will be 20.627 billion cubic meters, which accounts for 91 percent of the Jinsha River Basin. The flood control reservoir is an i...
发表评论
阅读全文