Africa is experiencing a significant surge in solar energy adoption.
This growth is expected to continue as more projects are underway.
South Africa leads the continent, while North African countries like Egypt and Morocco also contribute significantly.
Despite global declines, Africa's solar industry is thriving, driven by its vast solar potential.
Use of solar energy is growing at an accelerated rate in Africa, with the continent that was hardly noticeable on the global solar map a few years ago now having more than 20 gigawatts of installed capacity across all segments, according to the Africa Solar Industry Association (AFSIA).
This record is set to be reviewed further in the near future as other solar projects with a combined capacity of more than 10 gigawatts are already at various stages of construction across the continent, noted AFSIA, which promotes the use of solar power in Africa.
In its latest solar projects database update for the first half of 2025, AFSIA has identified more than 20 GWp (gigawatt peak) worth of operational solar capacity across the continent. The database counts close to 40,000 different projects at various stages of development. The 20 GWp capacity accounts for solar for utility-scale, commercial and industrial, mini-grids as well as Solar Home Systems across the 54-nation continent.
“South Africa remains the engine of the African solar industry, accounting for around half of all capacity installed in the continent,” read AFSIA’s report released on August 11. “North Africa also contributes greatly to the tally, with Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia completing the Top Four African countries hosting the most solar capacity in operation.”
The report predicted that this domination of the southern and northern parts of the continent is likely to be maintained going forward. “In 2025, new capacity that became operational predominantly came from southern Africa. While South Africa continues to invest massively in solar, other southern African countries are now jumping on the bandwagon and have rolled out significant solar capacities in 2025 alone. These include Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia.”
Senegal is almost an outlier in this Southern African group with 54 MWp new installed capacity identified in the year to date, the report noted. “In the northern part of the continent, the main push is expected to come from Algeria. After several years of inaction, the country has indeed decided to move forward with a whopping 3 GW initiative across 20 projects. These projects are at various stages of construction, and several are expected to be commissioned before the end of 2025.”
Another remarkable trend is that African solar is on a strong growth trajectory, whereas other regions of the world are witnessing a slowdown of new solar installations, AFSIA highlighted.
SolarPower Europe recently reported that it expects a solar decline of 1.4 per cent this year, marking a negative annual growth for this first time since 2015. In the United States, Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA) reports that solar installations have declined by seven per cent Year on Year and 43 per cent between the fourth quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025.
Africa, however, keeps beating its own records year after year, after recovering from the pandemic. Updated AFSIA figures indicated that 2024 saw a 44 per cent increase in new installations, further building on the 22 per cent increase momentum from 2023.
The future holds even greater prospects as more than 10 GWp of capacity has been identified to be under construction. Utility-scale projects currently under construction account for 70 per cent, marking a solid rebound from the post-COVID years during which Commercial and Industrial was the predominant segment in African solar.
“This capacity under construction is also more spread across the continent. South Africa remains the most active African country, but hosts “only” 28 per cent of the current construction activity,” the report said. “Algeria, Egypt, Angola, Tunisia and Zambia are other hot spots for African solar and account for 75 per cent of all current solar construction activity together with South Africa.”
In addition to promoting the use of solar power in Africa, the Rwanda-based AFSIA organises networking opportunities for solar professionals and gives them access to the right information and the right network to expand their business and strengthen the solar industry across the continent.
Some 600 million Africans, about 53 per cent of the continent’s population, live without access to electricity, according to the United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD). This is despite the fact that most parts of Africa enjoy over 3,000 hours of sunshine per year, making solar a viable power option for the continent.
In Africa, average daily solar irradiation ranges from 16 to 24 megajoules per square meter per day (MJ / sq m / day), depending on location. While the general range for most parts of Africa is 20-24 MJ / sq m / day, countries such as Botswana experience even higher values, exceeding 45 MJ / sq m / day.
It is this huge potential that the continent, which lags behind in terms of infrastructural development, is now taking advantage of. This thrust has been helped by the drop in the cost of solar products by about 90 per cent in the last decade.
Solar power saved South Africa — the continent’s biggest economy — from the brink. Starting in 2008, the country faced devastating power cuts, which peaked between 2020 and 2023, but by mid-2024, this power crisis had been solved, thanks to solar. The country has invested heavily in solar power both at industrial and household levels, adding an average of 3,000 MW of solar power annually since 2022.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), solar power has the potential to contribute 15 per cent of Africa’s electricity by 2030 that could double to 30 per cent by 2040.
One of the drawbacks of solar energy, according to experts, is the substantial initial investment needed, which many African governments and households might not easily afford.
In order to promote investment in solar, some African governments have been providing incentives to those going solar. For example, Zimbabwe, one of the countries that have seen a huge increase in solar installations, removed import duty on all solar products. Between 2023 and 2024, South Africa allowed individuals that had installed solar systems on their properties to claim rebates equal to 25 per cent of the cost they had incurred.
The experts have also highlighted that reliable solar power storage is currently still a problem for many users.
Meanwhile, a community of nearly 9,000 homes in rural Malawi is set to become the country’s first to receive 100 per cent universal access to solar power later this month through an award-winning energy model.
The Kasakula community in the Ntchisi district of central Malawi, where off-grid families have always relied on lamps and candles for their lighting, will be southern African country’s first community to hit this milestone, said Brave Mhonie, SolarAid Malawi general manager and president of Renewable Energy Industries Association of Malawi. SolarAid, a UK-based international development charity UK-based charity, has been working with this remote and low-income Kasakula community to pilot its Energy-as-a-Service model. Final installations for this project are set for August 26th.