Bulawayo power station is a 90 MW coal power plant in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. It is operated by ZESA Holdings Ltd [100%]. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 113k homes (estimated). It ranks #23 of 25 Zimbabwe power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 2022, it is around 4 years old — recently built. In context, coal supplies about 42.9% of Zimbabwe's electricity; the national grid averages 384 gCO₂/kWh (57.1% low-carbon) (2024).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id GEM_coa_bulawayo_zimba.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and fuel fields on this page are source-record values from the upstream open dataset. They are useful for identification and ranking, but they have not been upgraded to a 2026 registry/GEM-location verified value.
capacity: GEM GCPT; fuel: GEM GCPT
At 90 MW, Bulawayo power station is below the median coal plant in Zimbabwe (600 MW). Technically it is described as subcritical. Coal plants burn pulverised coal to raise high-pressure steam for a turbine; they run as baseload but are the most carbon-intensive mainstream source and the first targeted for retirement or efficiency retrofits.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by ZESA Holdings Ltd [100%].
This coal plant burns coal to raise high-pressure steam that spins a turbine-generator. It sits in a hot semi-arid steppe climate (Köppen BSh) — Southern Hemisphere, latitude 20.2°S — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Climate zone & typical temperatures: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid).
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in a benign, low-corrosion environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C1 — Very low), with dust abrasion the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #19 largest coal power plant of 21 in Zimbabwe by capacity.
Zimbabwe has 21 coal power plants in this dataset, together about 15,630 MW of capacity.
Coordinates -20.158611, 28.575278 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Bulawayo power station is a 90 MW coal power plant in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, commissioned in 2022.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 112,628 homes (estimated).
Bulawayo power station is operated by ZESA Holdings Ltd [100%].
