Maamba plant is a 300 MW coal power station in Southern, Zambia. It is operated by Maamba Collieries. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 375k homes (estimated). It ranks #8 of 27 Zambia power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 2016, it is around 10 years old — relatively modern. In context, coal supplies about 10.8% of Zambia's electricity; the national grid averages 120 gCO₂/kWh (87.5% low-carbon) (2024).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WRI1022376.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and/or fuel fields on this page include a source-backed provenance label from GEM, an official registry, Wikidata, OSM, or a cross-source match.
capacity: GEM tracker 2026 (location L100000104354); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 300 MW, Maamba plant is around the median coal plant in Zambia (300 MW). Technically it is described as subcritical. Coal plants burn pulverised coal to raise high-pressure steam for a turbine; they run as baseload but are the most carbon-intensive mainstream source and the first targeted for retirement or efficiency retrofits.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by Maamba Collieries.
This coal plant burns coal to raise high-pressure steam that spins a turbine-generator. It sits in a hot semi-arid steppe climate (Köppen BSh) — Southern Hemisphere, latitude 17.4°S — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
This site has effectively no heating season (tropical/equatorial climate), so winter heat loss is not the driver here. The thermal concern shifts to year-round process heat and humidity/heat-driven corrosion of hot equipment.
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in a benign, low-corrosion environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C1 — Very low), with dust abrasion the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #5 largest coal power plant of 11 in Zambia by capacity.
Zambia has 11 coal power plants in this dataset, together about 3,965 MW of capacity.
Coordinates -17.3529, 27.1859 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Maamba plant is a 300 MW source-record coal power plant in Southern, Zambia, commissioned in 2016.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 375,428 homes (estimated).
Maamba plant is operated by Maamba Collieries.
