AIKO to Supply Modules for Africa’s First Solar-Plus-Storage Baseload Project in DR Congo

Solar manufacturer AIKO has been selected to supply photovoltaic modules for CrossBoundary Energy’s Kamoa project in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a 233 MW solar-plus-storage facility that, according to the companies, is designed to operate as Africa’s first solar plant able to deliver baseload power — the round-the-clock, always-on electricity supply traditionally provided by fossil-fuel or hydro plants.

The project pairs large-scale solar generation with battery storage, allowing electricity produced during daylight hours to be dispatched after sunset. Storage addresses one of solar power’s core limitations, intermittency, and reduces curtailment — the practice of deliberately wasting solar output when grid demand is low — by shifting energy to periods of higher need.

The Kamoa facility is expected to serve mining operations in the region, an energy-intensive load that has historically relied on diesel generation or constrained national grid capacity in the DRC. Corporate power purchase arrangements of this kind, in which a private developer sells power directly to an industrial offtaker, have grown rapidly across sub-Saharan Africa as module prices have declined.

AIKO, a Chinese PV manufacturer known for its back-contact cell technology, gains a reference project in a continent where solar demand is expanding but where module suppliers compete intensely on cost and bankability. The deal also highlights the increasing role of Asian module supply chains in African utility-scale buildouts.

The announcement lands amid a difficult session for the solar manufacturing sector more broadly. US-listed First Solar (FSLR), which competes in utility-scale module supply with a thin-film technology distinct from the crystalline silicon used by AIKO, traded at $203.10, down 4.85% from its previous close of $213.45, putting its market capitalization at roughly $23.1 billion. First Solar manufactures domestically and is thus more exposed to US policy dynamics, whereas AIKO’s project underscores Chinese manufacturers’ reach into emerging African markets.

For CrossBoundary Energy, a developer focused on commercial and industrial solar in Africa, the Kamoa project represents one of the continent’s largest behind-the-meter renewable installations and a test case for whether solar-plus-storage can reliably serve heavy industrial loads without conventional backup generation.

What to watch

• Construction and commissioning milestones for the 233 MW Kamoa facility, including battery integration timelines.
• Details on the power purchase agreement terms with the mining offtaker and expected commissioning dates.
• Further solar-plus-storage announcements targeting industrial customers across sub-Saharan Africa.
• First Solar’s upcoming quarterly earnings report and any commentary on international demand for utility-scale modules.

Source: original release