CrossBoundary Energy has commissioned a 233 MWp solar-BESS system paired with 526 MWh of storage for the Kamoa-Kakula mining complex, delivering 30 MW of firm baseload power to Kamoa Copper in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

CrossBoundary Energy (CBE) commissioned an integrated solar photovoltaic and battery storage system in August 2026 for the Kamoa-Kakula copper mining complex in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The facility now supplies Kamoa Copper S.A., the site's owner, with a guaranteed 30 megawatts (MW) of power available 95% of the time annually. This type of solar-storage architecture echoes other recent, smaller-scale deployments, such as SunScout's 25 MWp solar-storage project signed in the Philippines, though the Congolese project far exceeds that scale. The growth of solar paired with storage is also visible elsewhere, as in China, where installed solar capacity now exceeds that of coal.

An unprecedented capacity in sub-Saharan Africa

The system pairs a 233 megawatt-peak (MWp) solar photovoltaic plant with a battery energy storage system (BESS) of 526 megawatt-hours (MWh) capacity. According to CrossBoundary Energy, this combination guarantees a dispatchable baseload supply of 30 MW, a performance the company describes as a first for solar paired with storage in sub-Saharan Africa. The Kamoa-Kakula mining complex, described as one of the world's largest and lowest-carbon copper producers, is thereby reducing its dependence on diesel generators and on the reliability constraints of the local power grid.

The facility is expected to offset approximately 78,750 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually and generate close to 300,000 MWh of clean energy per year, according to figures provided by CrossBoundary Energy. These volumes would support the net-zero commitments stated by Kamoa Copper. Declining costs for solar and battery technologies would now make this configuration competitive against traditional fossil-fuel generation in heavy industry, according to the operator.

An accelerated construction timeline

Kamoa Copper S.A. and CrossBoundary Energy signed the power purchase agreement (PPA) in April 2025, before moving into engineering, procurement and construction phases between May and August of that year. The provincial governor of Lualaba issued the production license in March 2026, by which point construction had passed the halfway mark, with battery-container installation underway and the first solar modules being installed. The plant exported its first electricity to Kamoa Copper in June 2026, roughly thirteen months after site access, as phased commissioning and performance testing continued.

The provincial governor of Lualaba issued the marketing license in July 2026, ahead of the site reaching commercial operation in August 2026, sixteen months after the PPA was signed. This timeline would make it, according to CrossBoundary Energy, the fastest-built large-scale solar-storage project on the African continent. The facility also illustrates a broader trend of electrifying remote industrial sites with hybrid solar-battery systems, as shown by recent commissionings such as Tata Power's 190.5 MW FDRE solar project commissioned in Rajasthan.