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- Africa has the largest solar energy potential in the world
- Africa’s solar potential of 4.51 kWh/kWp/day tops Central and South America’s 4.48, with North America following at 4.37
Africa is a gold mine, literally and figuratively. Providing key resources for the global clean energy transition, Africa also has enormous potential for renewable energy development. By 2023, the continent had 62.11 GW of installed renewable energy capacity, a number that could grow significantly with more funding.
Africa as a continent β ββand indeed, most African countries β has a greater practical PV potential from China (3.88 kWh/kWp/day), Japan, the United Kingdom and the global average (4.19 kWh/kWp/day). Therefore, Africa is β in principle β the best frontier for developing more solar power. In this blog, we look at Africa’s solar advances and its prospects as the next solar frontier.
Huge untapped solar potential
The continent of Africa has enormous resource potential in wind, solar, hydroelectric and geothermal energy. Central and Southern Africa are rich in minerals needed to produce electric batteries, wind turbines and other low-carbon technologies. According to Renewable Energy Market Analysis report by IRENA, Africa has a technical solar PV potential of 7,900 GW. In addition, the continent has significant potential for hydropower (1,753 GW) and wind power (461 GW). Some areas in Africa also have geothermal and modern bioenergy potential. However, Africa’s solar potential stands out as truly remarkable.
According to World Bank data analyzed by Statista, Africa has the largest solar energy potential in the world. It is the only area where a measure indicating “excellent conditions for solar energy” is exceeded. Africa’s 4.51 kWh/kWp/day tops Central and South America’s 4.48, with North America following at 4.37. To put this in context, about 20 percent of the world’s population lives in the 70 countries with “exceptional conditions” for solar energy, exceeding 4.5 kWh/kWp per day. On a continental basis, only African countries collectively average above this threshold.
While the potential is largely untapped in many of the continent’s less developed countries, the World Bank’s Global Solar Atlas, whose data was analyzed by Statista, still describes Africa’s solar potential as a unique opportunity to provide affordable, reliable and sustainable electricity to those in desperate need of improved quality of life and economic opportunity.
What is preventing the continent from realizing its solar potential?
Financing remains a major obstacle on Africa’s path to leadership in renewable energy, particularly solar energy. Over the past two decades, Africa has received just 2 percent of global renewable energy investment, highlighting significant regional disparities. Reliance on grants and aid has further complicated matters, as these sources often do not favor optimal investments in technology or suppliers.
A 2021 report by the IEA, in partnership with the World Bank and the World Economic Forum, says annual clean energy investment in emerging markets and developing economies needs to increase sevenfold by 2030βfrom less than $150 billion in 2021 to over of $1 trillionβto put the world on track to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
Africa holds about 60 percent of the world’s primary solar resources, but accounts for only 1 percent of global solar generation capacity. To meet its current energy and climate goals, the continent needs an annual investment of US$190 billion between 2026 and 2030, with two-thirds of this funding going to clean energy initiatives.
Solar energy in production
The World Bank, the ILO and other partners, including the United Nations, have recently called on developed economies to provide more support for the development of the energy and renewable energy sectors in developing economies such as Africa.
North Africa
North Africa β which includes Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Sudan β is the continent’s largest energy market. The region, apart from Sudan, is characterized by remarkable socio-economic development, industrialization and access to modern energy. With one of the highest solar potentials in the world, North Africa has average annual solar radiation exceeding 2000 kWh per square meter per year, with countries such as Egypt and Morocco standing out.
While investment needs to be more equitably distributed, most are currently concentrated in Morocco and Egypt. Morocco’s Noor solar project and Egypt’s Benban solar project exemplify the region’s active push for solar development. Morocco is leading the way in particular to become the solar energy powerhouse in the region. Last year, Morocco launched a renewable energy development project in the Western Sahara region with a massive investment of 20 billion dirhams (US$1.95 billion). The country also announced plans to increase investment to $1.4 billion annually from 2023 to 2027, aiming to complete around 1.3 GW of renewable energy capacity each year within that period.
Together, Morocco and Egypt are expected to add nearly 35 GW of solar power by 2030. Several companies, including AMEA Power, ACWA Power, Egypt’s New and Renewable Energy Authority Scatec (NREA) and the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (MASEN). drive these developments.
South Africa
Likewise, the lower half of the continent is also looking to tap into its vast solar energy potential, with South Africa being particularly notable. Leading not only the southern part of the continent but the whole of Africa, South Africa had about 7.8 GW of solar capacity, excluding residential solar, in 2023 – roughly equal to the combined capacity of other African countries.
In 2023, South Africa installed 79 percent of all new solar capacity on the continent, adding nearly 3 GWp to a total of 3.75 GWp. For two consecutive years, in 2022 and 2023, South Africa saw the largest increase in solar installations in African history. Looking ahead, the country’s solar energy sector is poised for significant growth, with the market projected to expand by US$3.74 billion between 2023 and 2028.
Epirus at risk: Need to accelerate investment
Despite contributing only 4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, Africa is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change. The continent faces challenges such as water scarcity, declining food production, more extreme weather events and lower economic growth, leading to mass migration and regional instability.
A global “climate resilience” ranking of 136 countries by consultancy Henley and Partners put eight African countries at the bottom. Africa suffers the effects of climate change mainly due to emissions from richer countries, which score higher on the climate resilience list. The United States, Germany and the United Kingdom are ranked as the most resilient to climate change.
With nearly 675 million people in Africa – 80 percent of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa – lacking access to electricity, harnessing the continent’s potential is vital. Solar panel technology, at USD 995/kW, is the cheapest of all renewable energy technologies. South Africa and Egypt have the largest solar capacity, followed by Algeria. According to the World Bank, by 2030, solar mini-grids could provide high-quality, uninterrupted power to 380 million people.
While solar power can help Africa reduce emissions and expand access to electricity, the continent is still in the early stages of building its solar infrastructure. Africa’s solar resources increased by 13 percent from 2019 to 2020, with 9 percent of total electricity now coming from renewables, mainly hydropower. Solar’s journey into the mainstream has been slow, hampered by decades of hesitance to adopt the new technology.
This reluctance has locked many African countries into high-carbon energy, spending up to six times more to subsidize fossil fuel consumption than they had committed to under the Paris Agreement.
However, the right policies and regulations can help reduce the cost of solar development, attract cheaper financing and encourage private investment. According to the World Bank, ODA will help make solar energy the world’s most widely available energy source in the next three years. Indeed, Africa’s solar progress has the potential to become the next solar frontier.
By Yash Singh