Solar PV in Africa posted its fastest growth on record in 2025, adding 4.5 GW of new capacity as distributed systems and commercial installations reshaped one of the world’s fastest-growing clean energy markets.
Solar PV in Africa posts a record year in 2025
Solar PV in Africa recorded its strongest expansion ever in 2025, with about 4.5 GW of newly installed capacity, up 54% year over year. The surge marked a new all-time high and positioned the continent among the fastest-growing solar markets globally.
The figures come from the Africa Market Outlook for Solar PV: 2026–2029, produced by the Global Solar Council together with African solar associations and international partners.
Growth exceeded the previous 2023 record and moved well beyond medium-term estimates made just a year earlier.
The overall picture is a market in rapid acceleration, increasingly diversified across countries and progressively driven by distributed systems, commercial installations, and self-consumption solutions. This shift reflects rising electricity demand, persistent grid constraints, and steadily declining technology costs.
Which countries led solar PV in Africa in 2025?
In 2025, the ten largest markets accounted for about 90% of new installations, confirming the leadership of several already mature countries. South Africa ranked first with 1.6 GW, followed by Nigeria with 803 MW, Egypt with 500 MW, and Algeria with 400 MW.
Alongside these established leaders, the report highlights growing participation from mid-sized markets. Morocco added 204 MW, Zambia 139 MW, Tunisia 120 MW, Botswana 120 MW, Ghana 92 MW, and Chad 86 MW, contributing to broader geographic diversification.
A key indicator is the doubling of countries surpassing the 100 MW annual threshold, rising from four to eight in just one year. This trend strengthens the resilience of the African solar market and reduces reliance on a small number of large utility-scale projects.
The growing role of distributed and commercial systems
One of the report’s central findings is the structural transformation of the market. In 2025, 56% of installed capacity came from utility-scale plants, while 44% was attributed to distributed, commercial, and rooftop systems.
According to the Global Solar Council, this share is likely underestimated, as many installations are not fully captured by official statistics.
Import data reinforces this interpretation. Africa imported 18.2 GW of solar modules in 2025 alone, a volume that significantly exceeds projected utility-scale installations for 2026–2027, estimated at 14.3 GW in the medium scenario.
The mismatch between imports and large projects suggests that a substantial portion of the market consists of distributed systems, often privately financed and deployed by households, businesses, and productive activities.
Solar PV in Africa still relies heavily on public finance
The report describes Africa’s solar market as the outcome of two parallel energy transitions. One is government-led, centered on large grid-connected projects supported mainly by public and multilateral finance.
The other is private-led, driven by rooftop, commercial, and captive systems that address reliability and supply continuity needs. The challenge, the Global Solar Council notes, is that financing models have yet to adapt.
Around 82% of clean energy financing in Africa still comes from public and development sources, while distributed solar requires different instruments, smaller ticket sizes, shorter tenors, and local-currency financing.
Although private investment grew from $17 billion in 2019 to nearly $40 billion in 2024, access to capital remains complex for many smaller-scale initiatives.
Future growth hinges on rising electricity demand
According to the report, the next phase of solar PV in Africa will depend less on nominal capacity targets and more on the readiness of power systems.
Electricity demand is expected to rise rapidly and could increase eightfold by 2050 compared with current levels. In this context, solar will need to be increasingly integrated with energy storage, more flexible grids, and balancing solutions.
The document emphasizes that solar-plus-storage is a critical combination to ensure reliability, climate resilience, and energy security.
Without upgrades to infrastructure and regulatory frameworks, the risk is a slowdown in installations and higher system costs, despite Africa’s abundant solar resource, which represents about 60% of the world’s best global potential.
Outlook to 2029 between opportunity and risk
The medium-term scenario outlined by the Global Solar Council points to average annual growth of 21% through 2029, with more than 33 GW of new capacity installed by the end of the decade. That volume would be more than six times the capacity added in 2025 alone.
Achieving this outcome will depend on better alignment between market dynamics and public policy. The report highlights several priorities, lowering the cost of capital, streamlining permitting for distributed solar, developing national storage strategies, improving grid planning transparency, and strengthening data collection.
Without these reforms, the acceleration seen in 2025 risks falling short of delivering sustained long-term growth.
