Zimbabwe’s electricity authority is planning a giveaway of around 5.5 million energy-saving CFLs in order to reduce their own energy consumption.
“We will give the compact fluorescent lamps for free in exchange for incandescent bulbs which we will destroy. This is an immediate term response to relieve our clients from load-shedding,” said Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) spokesman Fullard Gwasira.
He also added that the compact florescent lamps are expected to save 200 megawatts of electricity and are to be distributed by the end of the year. However, CFLs contain mercury, so a people should be advised from the beginning not to destroy them. Moreover, they’d better recycle them instead of filling the streets with mercury.
ZESA also wants to implement a new billing system for consumers to manage their own consumption of electricity. Currently, the main part of Zimbabwe’s energy is generated from the Kariba Hydro and Hwange thermal power stations. The problem is that there are massive powercuts lasting up to 10 hours in some cases due to excessive consumption.
[via Physorg]
