China runs 1,142 coal fired power plants to produce electricity to support its economy. India has 282, making it the country with the second highest number of power plants fired by coal. Third in the order is the United States of America with 210 coal power plants and Fourth is Japan which runs 93 units that produce electricity by firing coal.
Meanwhile, Zambia is running one coal plant at Maamba Collieries and another at Dangote Cement in Ndola. ( maybe one or two more units elsewhere). The installed generation capacity in Zambia from different sources is 3356.6 MW broken down as;
- 83 % is hydro,
- 9 % is coal,
- 5 % heavy fuel
- 3 % solar PV.
From a public policy perspective, we need to look at four things;
- Is Zambia a signatory to any international agreement that prevents us from running more coal fired power plants ?
- Is there financing available ( private or public money) to set up these coal fired power plants ?
- Are coal fired power plants not part of the energy mix that Zambia is suppose to have in dealing with the power deficit?
- Do we have enough coal in Zambia to meet the demand needed to fire coal plants that produce electricity?
The Ministry of Energy has projected national demands for electricity in megawatts (MW) as follows;
- 2020- demand 2,456MW
- 2025- demand 3,338MW
- 2030- demand 5,432MW
- 2040- demand 8,624MW
- 2050- demand 11,039MW
By the way, only 34% of the population in Zambia have access to electricity 🇿🇲