BB Energy Enters Power Market With 25-MWp Zambia Solar Debut

• BB Energy commissions 25-MWp Mailo solar farm in Zambia, starts trading on SAPP and secures funding to expand the site and build a 500-MWp regional portfolio.

Energy-trading heavyweight BB Energy has flipped the switch on its first renewable power asset—the 25-MWp Mailo Phase 1 solar farm in Zambia—and started selling electricity on the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP), the region’s competitive wholesale market. The milestone propels the Beirut-founded firm beyond its traditional oil and products business and into a new role as a merchant generator.

Built on 204 ha of land in the Mailo Chiefdom, the plant will deliver more than 60 GWh of clean power each year, enough to meet the needs of roughly 25,000 households and displace around two million tonnes of CO₂ over its lifetime. 

Mailo also marks three “firsts” for BB Energy: its first self-developed solar project, its first foray into electricity trading and its first dedicated energy-transition financing. Standard Bank has provided a USD 40 million loan that will bankroll Phase 2, lifting the site to 60 MWp, with a final expansion target of 118 MWp by 2027. 

The Zambian project is the opening move in a wider strategy led by subsidiary Solarcentury Africa to assemble a 500-MWp portfolio of merchant solar assets across the Southern African Development Community. Construction is already under way on the 60-MWp Gerus solar farm in Namibia, with additional sites under evaluation in power-short nations that rely heavily on ageing coal stations and variable hydropower. 

Beyond delivering carbon-free kilowatt-hours, Mailo has generated tangible local benefits: more than 400 jobs were created during construction and into operations, and a revenue-sharing agreement is in place with neighbouring communities. The project was developed, financed and built in under a year—evidence, the company says, of how its decades of logistics and risk-management expertise can accelerate renewables deployment.

Group CEO Mohamed Bassatne called the launch “a strategic evolution” for BB Energy, signalling its intent to blend conventional trading with scalable, low-carbon generation. Entry into SAPP allows the company to sell solar output in day-ahead and intra-day auctions or through bilateral deals, giving it price flexibility—and a template it hopes to replicate as more projects come online.