Shot in arm for BCC

BULAWAYO City Council (BCC) has approved well-wisher's offer to instal solar systems at some of the council's facilities to ensure smooth running of operations during power outages.

According to the latest council minutes, Town Clerk Christopher Dube told council that he received a proposal from Enduring Sun Energy (Pvt) Ltd, a company owned by Frenell (Germany) and Geobase Energy (Zimbabwe) for the project.

"The feasibility study would be premised on the construction/installation of a Solar Rooftop and Solar Car Park Systems at the City Hall main car park, the Revenue Hall and the Tower Block. This was an unsolicited application whose costs would be fully financed by the applicant," partly read the minutes.

"The applicant was interested in carrying out a technical evaluation and assessment by way of a feasibility study. Council stood to benefit from such a project should it be deemed viable after the feasibility study and council would not suffer any prejudice through this study."

BCC resolved to authorise the applicant to carry out a feasibility study premised on construction/installation of the solar systems at the targeted areas and present its technical and commercial findings/recommendations.

The development comes as BCC is working on five out of nine solar farm projects in an effort to reduce reliance on national power supplier Zesa Holdings.