Regular progress reports on Africa’s quest to meet its energy needs through solar power are necessary to gauge the continent’s progress towards this important development goal. Progress there continues to be, though the principal hindrance remains the challenge of funding solar projects.

The answer to Africa’s energy needs shines in plain sight. While 600-million or 43% of Africans live without electricity, Africa itself receives more bright sunlight than any other continent. The massive potential is largely unmet due to inadequate investment, leaving substantial needs unaddressed. To achieve the African Union’s goal of having all citizens of its member states enjoying electricity by 2030, US$25-billion must be invested annually in the energy sector. Current funding falls short, although investment is accelerating, particularly through private and public partnerships.

The International Renewable Energy Agency conducted a solar survey of Africa, recording an annual average solar insolation of 2,119 kWh/m², with most countries in North Africa, Southern Africa and West Africa exceeding that amount. The Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization, which advocates a global interconnected energy grid, reports that if Africa were to harness all its solar capacity, 60-million TWh/year could be produced, which would meet 40% of the entire world’s electricity demand. The estimate of the International Energy Agency is even higher, finding that Africa possesses 60% of the world’s prime solar resources. Since Africa relies on fossil fuels to produce 79% of its electricity, the danger of climate change would be significantly reduced with greater investment into this renewable resource.

Investment in African solar energy declined during the Covid-19 pandemic, recovered in 2024 and is forecast to expand by 2030 in both the Announced Pledges Scenario and the Net Zero Emissions scenario.
Data courtesy: International Energy Agency, 2024

Infrastructure overhaul required to receive new solar energy production

Despite its potential solar wealth, Africa’s solar generation capacity met only 1% of its energy needs using only 1% of its total solar energy generating capacity in 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic stalled investment, jeopardising the renewable energy goals until investment picked up again in 2024. About half of Africa’s solar energy production comes from photovoltaic systems, such as rooftop solar panels or solar farms with panels covering several acres. The other half of Africa’s solar energy is produced by concentrated solar power, whereby arrays of mirrors reflect sunlight onto an elevated receiver.

However, electricity generated by solar and other forms of renewable energy can literally have nowhere to go because of antiquated and inefficient national electricity grids. Aging transmission lines and other encumbrances to connectivity are creating bottlenecks in South Africa, where a majority of major new solar generation projects are located. In addition to investment in modernising electricity grids, there is a need to expand the solar investment footprint across the entirety of Africa, not just in countries that have successfully generated solar power. Egypt, Morocco and South Africa account for 80% of the solar power generated in Africa, each from one of Africa’s largest mega solar projects. The remaining seven of Africa’s 10 largest solar power projects are located in South Africa.

The Ouarzazate Solar Power Station in Morocco is of the second largest in the world. As its generation capacity was phased in between 2013 and 2018 and each new concentrated solar power unit went online, capacity increased from 160MW to 580MW. The complex is the centrepiece of an aggressive solar power regimen that is projected to produce 4 560MW of solar power by 2030. Such clean energy power generation means 800 000 tonnes of greenhouse gases will not enter the atmosphere, as they otherwise would if fossil fuels continued to be used for power generation.

The atmosphere will also be spared an annual addition of 2-million tonnes of greenhouse gases when Egypt’s Benban Solar Park is fully operational, producing 1.8GW of solar energy. Producing 400MW of power at present, Benban is Africa’s third-largest solar project. The second largest, producing 540MW, is South Africa’s Kenhardt hybrid solar and battery facility. The plant’s significant innovation is its 1 140 MWh battery storage unit, which will ensure a constant transmission of up to 150MW of electricity daily, whether the sun is shining or not. Weather conditions have made solar power projects unreliable suppliers of electricity, rendering batteries of ever-growing capacity technological inevitabilities as Africa seeks to exploit its solar electricity goals. The remaining seven of Africa’s ten largest solar projects are all located in South Africa:

Investment is founded upon energy policies

Africa’s solar energy leaders – Egypt, Morocco and South Africa – have all promulgated energy policies favourable to investment in the solar sector and have invested funds themselves as their contributions to private and public partnerships. For Africa to achieve its 2030 renewable energy goals successfully, an annual investment of US$200-billion is required. The International Energy Agency reports that US$40-billion is invested in Africa yearly on renewable energies, against the US$70-billion in fossil fuels.

While the imbalance in investment is troubling in the face of a climate change crisis instigated by the burning of fossil fuels, the good news is that investment in clean energy is accelerating. Government energy policies now incorporate investment incentives and means to address concomitant hindrances to sector growth, such as antiquated power grids, regulatory systems out of step with the needs of the renewable energy sector and an insufficient number of African technicians. Assuming progress against these encumbrances, the African Energy Chamber’s State of African Energy 2024 Outlook forecasts that renewable energies will account for 65% of installed capacity in Africa by 2035 and 95% by 2050.

The critical points:

• 600-million or 40% of Africans do not have electricity
• Solar power projects are increasing, with Egypt, Morocco and South Africa leading the field, propelled by government policies favourable to investment
• Solar and other renewable energies will make up the bulk of electricity generation by 2050

Written by In on Africa