Zimbabwe's Cabinet received an update on a planned 600-megawatt floating solar power plant on Lake Kariba at its post-Cabinet media briefing on Tuesday, 13 October.

Kariba floating solar: from plan to implementation

Cabinet also heard about progress on a 600MW solar project to be built on the surface of Lake Kariba. Reports by The Anchor and Equity Axis put the cost at about US$650 million. They say the project has cleared its technical, regulatory and commercial approvals and is now ready for implementation.

According to those reports, the developer is GreenGrid. The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) will buy the power. The Herald has separately reported that the GreenGrid 600MW Kariba Solar Park has been granted a generation licence.

Floating solar panels sit on pontoons on a reservoir. Supporters say that saves farmland, cuts evaporation from the water surface, and lets the plant use existing grid connections at the dam. Kariba already powers the country's main hydroelectric station, and its output has fallen sharply in drought years when water levels drop. That has contributed to long power cuts for homes and businesses.

At 600MW, the planned plant would be a large addition to Zimbabwe's generating capacity. No construction start date or completion date was given at the briefing.

Other matters at the briefing

Ministers also took questions on several other issues, according to Hanyani's account of the briefing:

Alluvial mining: it remains banned under Statutory Instrument 188 of 2024. The President has declared a state of disaster over degraded river ecosystems, including the Mazowe River, under SI 91 of 2026, later extended by SI 106 of 2026.

Weather forecasts: ministers said seasonal forecasts are probabilistic, so a 45 percent probability "still leaves room for error". It was too early to say the current forecasts were wrong.

Early warning: ministers said early warning systems are now in place in almost every province. They admitted that a recent disaster exposed weak communication between the Meteorological Services Department and the platforms used to warn the public.

What to watch

The Kariba project's next milestones are financial close and the start of construction, and neither has been dated publicly. We will update this story when the developer announces a timetable.

Sources: Hanyani News (post-Cabinet briefing), 13 Oct 2026: https://hanyani.com/post-cabinet-media-briefing-13-october-2026-child-justice-bill-kariba-solar-and-more/ · The Anchor, Oct 2026: https://www.theanchor.co.zw/us650m-kariba-floating-solar-project-ready-for-implementation/ · Herald, Oct 2026: https://www.heraldonline.co.zw/kariba-floating-solar-project-a-step-up/ · Equity Axis, Oct 2026: https://equityaxis.net/post/19558/2026/10/kariba-s-us-650m-solar-project-prepares-for-implementation