Africa’s Solar Capacity Touches 2.5 GW In 2024

Africa Solar Capacity Touches 2.5 GW In 2024

Africa last year in 2024, added 2.5 GWp of new solar capacity, reaching a total of 19.2 GWp across the continent. The Africa Solar Industry Association’s (AFSIA’s), “African Solar Outlook” report found, that during this period, Africa’s utility-scale solar has represented almost 72% of all new capacity installed. This is a major shift from the last 2 years when C&I was the leading contributor of solar in Africa, mostly driven by the market evolution in South Africa. With 75% of the market share, utility-scale solar back again holds the traditional weight it has had over the past decade in Africa. The market is driven again by a handful of DFI-funded projects developed by international private companies and having the national utility company as an off-taker, with the financial backing of the local government.

C&I in South Africa

Africa’s commercial and Industrial (C&I) segment remains important with 39% of the market according to the report. It explained, “This growth is driven both by a multitude of small private C&I projects (also called embedded generation) and also by large wheeling projects. However, countries like Nigeria are not fertile ground for utility-scale solar due to the very poor grid infrastructure. Instead, C&I, mini-grids, and residential solar are the most prevalent forms of solar, with C&I representing the overwhelming majority of the capacity installed.

Africa solar capacity

Large Scale

The report analyzed and found, “The world came to a halt then and the DFI activity, which is what mostly drives large-scale solar projects in Africa, had been severely interrupted. During the period 2021-2023, our annual report repeatedly highlighted how prevalent the C&I segment had become in the African solar ecosystem. This period now seems to be behind us and figures indicate a solid come-back from the large-scale segment in 2024 and for the years to come.”

The report added, “Within this, the large scale represented 72% of the newly installed capacity in 2024, which is a significant boost from last year’s 32.4%. And the growth is even more striking when looking at absolute figures: 521 MW of large-scale projects were installed in 2023 while 1,783 MW were recorded for this year. That is a growth of almost 350%.”

2024: The New Large-Scale and Energy Storage  Projects Boom 

The report found, “Africa, the storage boom in 2024 which saw an annual capacity recorded by AFSIA stalled around 50 MWh (exclusive SHS and residential systems) until 2022, the use of storage tripled in 2023 and then experienced another 10-fold increase in 2024.”

Africa’s storage capacity

The report explained, “The large scale now represents more than 80% of all the solar capacity planned to be added in the coming years. With almost 81 GW worth of projects all across the continent, this segment is poised to become the engine of African solar growth once again, attracting significant foreign investment and injecting lots of MWh into the grids to address the ever-growing electricity demand across the continent.”