Image credit: Enrapower

ZNyaya Analysis Desk

Every afternoon across Zimbabwe, thousands of solar systems reach peak output — and then dump that electricity into the void.

A solar installer who asked not to be identified said Zimbabwe is throwing away more than 12MW daily.

“A 5kVA home system wastes roughly 10–12.5kWh of unused solar energy a day. Multiply that by 30,000 houses, and Zimbabwe is throwing away 300–375MWh of solar power every single day. That’s the equivalent of a 12.5–15.6MW solar plant running nonstop — lost simply because the country cannot feed household solar into the grid,” he said.

He said a standard 5kVA home system can produce 20–25kWh a day and most households consume only a fraction of that during daylight hours. The rest is wasted because it is not fed power into the national grid.

This is the equivalent of:

• A 15–20MW solar farm feeding the grid for free — every month.
• Power for 45,000–60,000 households for a month.
• Electricity to run Harare’s water pumps, clinics and streetlights comfortably.

“Net metering exists — but most systems can’t use it”

Mr Lawrence Hoba

Enrapower CEO Lawrence Hoba says net metering — the policy that allows solar owners to feed energy into ZESA — does exist, but in practice it is almost meaningless.

“Net metering is there, but 90 percent of residential systems can’t use it. The inverters people buy simply can’t export power,”
says Hoba.

He says the reason is brutally simple: Entry-level inverters cost US$350–500 → they are off-grid, not grid-tied. Net-metering-ready inverters cost US$800 and most clients opt for the cheaper option.

Hoba says even for the few who do have compatible systems, the payoff is weak as net metering gives one credit and not cash, so there is little incentive.
Hoba explains.

So Zimbabwe created a policy but not the market conditions or incentives to make it work.

The scale is much bigger than government realises

Hoba says the growth in the sector is staggering.

• In new suburbs, over 60 percent of homes now run on at least 5kVA solar.
• Enrapower alone installs around 23 systems every month.
• Zimbabwe had roughly 250 solar companies in 2017 — today the number is over 1,000, not counting the unregistered informal operators who dominate high-density areas.

Factor in unregistered operators, and the real number of installers or solar businesses could be 1,500–2,000 nationwide.

In Tynwald, a massive wholesale warehouse now imports solar panels and inverters in bulk. Zimbabwe has already built a decentralised solar industry — but not a solar electricity economy. And this is just Harare’s 5kVA homes — ignoring 1–3kVA units, commercial rooftops, warehouses and SME hubs, rural business centres, agricultural estates as well as mines and factories

Nationally, Zimbabwe could be wasting 10–15 GWh of solar per month — while importing electricity from neighbours.

Private sector solar keeps rising — government remains in coal

While households, businesses and estates pour money into solar, government’s main energy focus is still thermal. A US$455 million refurbishment deal  for Hwange Units 1–6 awaits cabinet approval. In other words government is prepared to pour in money into aged coal units that have failed repeatedly for decades, are dependent on coal availability and costly maintenance and will be producing carbon-heavy electricity even as global finance shifts to clean energy

These investments are happening while Zimbabwe’s private sector has built more than 120MW of behind-the-meter solar, including:

• Centragrid 25MW (Nyabira)
• Blanket Mine 12MW
• Tanganda 4.4MW
• Nottingham 2.25MW
• Hippo Valley 39MW
• Triangle 35MW
• NRZ Pension Fund 5.3MW rooftops

The paradox: Zimbabwe has solved half the problem

Zimbabwe has sunshine, private capital, a booming solar industry, massive consumer uptake, a workforce of 1,000+ formal solar companies and new graduates entering the field each year, plummeting equipment prices, tens of thousands of rooftop systems and over 120MW of private solar farms.

What it does not have:

• net-metering-ready equipment affordability
• incentives for grid-tied solar
• a national rooftop programme
• floating solar on dams
• industrial solar corridors

In simple terms:

Zimbabwe has built the generation but not the connection.

Several countries have successfully scaled solar by making it easy, profitable or compulsory for households to feed excess energy into the grid.

Germany, guaranteed feed-in tariffs paid households for every unit exported, turning more than two million rooftops into a major national power source and proving that small systems can drive a national energy shift.

Australia, the world’s rooftop-solar leader, built a system where exporting power is easy and often rewarded. With more than four million solar homes, some states now even offer free daytime electricity to soak up surplus generation — a model built around households, not utilities.

Japan rewrote its energy laws and rolled out rooftop solar at unprecedented scale. Simple approvals and stable export payments turned schools, factories and homes into mini-plants, helping the country build more than 70GW of solar capacity.

In India, net metering and PAY-GO financing brought thousands of middle-income households and SMEs into solar, reducing urban grid pressure and driving a national rooftop boom. And Kenya’s PAY-GO model shows that even low-income communities adopt solar quickly when financing is accessible and the grid welcomes small producers.

For Zimbabwe, the lesson is clear: when policy rewards export, rooftop solar becomes part of the national grid — not wasted power.