SIGNALS: PEOPLE, NUMBERS, AND IDEAS SHAPING BUSINESS
By the NUMBERS
AFRICA’ S OTHER ENERGY TRANSITION
Africa’ s solar revolution is not unfolding only through vast utility projects and government procurement programmes.
A second transition is taking place on factory roofs, commercial properties, mines and private homes. Businesses and households are increasingly installing their own solar and storage systems in response to unreliable grids, rising tariffs and falling technology costs.
This privately financed market is much harder to measure. Major solar farms are recorded when they connect to national grids, but thousands of smaller installations can be imported, installed and operated without appearing promptly in official electricity statistics.
The result is a widening gap between the solar equipment entering Africa and the capacity captured in conventional energy data.
According to the Global Solar Council, Africa installed approximately 4.5GW of new solar capacity in 2025, a record increase of 54 % from the previous year. South Africa remained the continent’ s largest individual market, but growth is spreading rapidly through Nigeria, Egypt, Algeria, Zambia, Botswana and other countries.
The most revealing number is not installed capacity but the 18.2GW of solar modules imported during the year. Against 4.5GW of reported additions, the discrepancy is too large to ignore. Some panels remain in warehouses or await installation. Others are almost certainly generating electricity behind the meter, on systems that official statistics struggle to capture.
The financing mismatch
Approximately 82 % of Africa’ s clean-energy finance still comes from public and development sources, even as households and businesses account for a growing share of new installations.
Source: Global Solar Council, Africa Market Outlook for Solar PV 2026 – 2029 sabusinessintegrator. co. za 35