Commercial and industrial clean energy companies are seeing increased demand as the US-Iran war drives up oil prices. Diesel accounts for around 20% to 40% of operation costs in mining, as it’s used in drilling, providing backup power and other uses. Cape Town-based clean energy investor Inspired Evolution, which clinched $238 million last year for energy transition projects in Africa, invested $40 million in CrossBoundary Energy.
The funding will support solar energy and battery storage projects for the Kamoa-Kakula copper mine in the southern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Baomahun gold mine in Sierra Leone.
“Renewable energy systems can now beat the cost of diesel on a kilowatt-hour to kilowatt-hour basis, especially in the remotest regions of Africa or Australia,” CrossBoundary said in a statement. “Mines that procure energy from us today know exactly what each kilowatt-hour will cost in 15 years.”
Solar integration
Commercial banks and development financiers are at the forefront of the shift to renewables. Earlier this month, First Quantum Minerals invested $500 million for a solar and wind plant for its Zambia mining operations, which are being co-developed by TotalEnergies and UK-based Chariot Energy. Chariot’s subsidiary Etana raised $100 million in guarantee financing from GuarantCo and British International Investment. CrossBoundary secured $300 million in senior debt over the last two years from South Africa’s Standard Bank. Impact Fund Denmark had invested $40 million for the copper mine in DRC.
CrossBoundary’s Tom Roberts told ImpactAlpha its clients are saving up to 50% in energy-related costs. The 30-megawatt solar plant for DRC’s copper mine could cut emissions by nearly 80,000 tons per year. CrossBoundary’s challenge: complex logistics in remote areas and lengthy regulatory processes in multiple jurisdictions.
