Copperbelt Energy financed 136MW at Itimpi on its own bond, without a state guarantee

Itimpi II went into service at Kitwe in May at a cost of $125.8 million, funded entirely from Copperbelt Energy Corporation’s $200 million green bond. It is the largest operational solar plant in Zambia, and it was built without a sovereign guarantee standing behind the paper.

Itimpi II went into service at Kitwe in May, carrying 136MW. It is the largest operational solar asset in Zambia. Copperbelt Energy Corporation paid for it out of a $200 million green bond raised on its own balance sheet, at a project cost of $125.8 million, with no sovereign guarantee behind the debt. Vincent Nyirenda, the company’s Chief Projects Officer, set the build out on ENN’s podcast in June.

Construction took fourteen months. The site created more than 2,500 jobs and fifteen local firms held contracts on it. CEC is listed in Lusaka and became the country’s first billion-dollar company.

Itimpi I came first, a 60MW plant on the same ground at Kitwe, commissioned in April 2024 at a cost of $53 million across 80 hectares and producing around 130 GWh a year. Both are held through CEC Renewables, a wholly owned subsidiary.

Together the two plants take the company’s solar capacity to 230MW. CEC has set a target of 500MW by 2027 with storage integrated, aimed at the power deficit in mining and industry rather than at the domestic grid.

Mining demand explains the shape of it. CEC estimated after the Mining Indaba in February that supporting Zambia’s planned mining expansion would need close to 10GW of new generation and nearly $12 billion of energy investment by 2030, its own figure rather than a government one. The company supplies power directly to mining customers and operates across generation, transmission and trading.

Zambia has 1.15GW of operational solar tracked by the Africa Solar Industry Association, against a national target of 10GW of installed capacity across all sources by 2030. ZESCO’s own total stands at 800MW. Itimpi II and Chisamba II between them account for a third of what is running.

CEC and ZESCO have since begun an accelerated joint programme to develop a further 500MW of greenfield utility-scale solar, a state utility and a listed private one building on the same schedule.

Copperbelt Energy Corporation joins the Zimbabwe-Zambia Energy Projects Summit in Livingstone from 3 to 5 November as Country Host, where Itimpi I and II appear among the investment highlights in the mining and power session.

Photo Credit: Copperbelt Energy Corporation