Africa’s PV capacity nears 20GW as energy storage ‘booms’

January 16, 2025
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email
South Africa continues to dominate Africa’s PV market, which saw 2.5GW of new additions last year. Image: Scatec Solar.

Africa’s cumulative PV installations reached 19.2GW in 2024, increasing by 2.5GW on 2023 levels.

The Africa Solar Africa Solar Outlook 2025, published by trade body AFSIA Solar, said the continent recorded steady growth in 2024, notching up the third consecutive year of more than 2GW of capacity additions.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Try Premium for just $1

  • Full premium access for the first month at only $1
  • Converts to an annual rate after 30 days unless cancelled
  • Cancel anytime during the trial period

Premium Benefits

  • Expert industry analysis and interviews
  • Digital access to PV Tech Power journal
  • Exclusive event discounts

Or get the full Premium subscription right away

Or continue reading this article for free

AFSIA’s market outlook report only tracks projects in the utility-scale, commercial and industrial (C&I) and mini-grid segments. According to the report, the utility and C&I segments accounted for the lion’s share of 2024 additions, at 1.78GW and 675MW respectively. Although the report does not cover the residential market, AFSIA estimated residential installations could represent 10-20% additional capacity

As in previous years, Africa’s PV market activity in 2024 was heavily dominated by two countries, South Africa and Egypt, which saw 1.2GW and 707MW of new additions, respectively. After these two market leaders were Zambia, with 74.8MW; Nigeria, with 63.5MW; and Angola, with 53.8MW.

AFSIA said the continent’s share of global PV installations in 2024 was the lowest since 2013, at just 0.5%. Such a low level of activity was “not doing justice to the African solar potential nor the need for new power generation across the continent”, AFSIA said,

But on a more positive note, the report said 2024 had seen 40GW of new project proposals coming forward, representing a 21% increase in the continent’s project pipeline compared to 2023.

“While risk and uncertainty may always affect plans and announcements negatively, the pipeline for solar in Africa is dense and the African solar future remains promising,” AFSIA noted.

A storage ‘boom’

Also significant in 2024 was what AFSIA described as a “boom” in energy storage, with cumulative capacity experiencing more than a tenfold increase from 150MWh in 2023 to 1,641MWh in 2024.

AFSIA said it had identified around 18GWh of projects under development across Africa, driven by sharply decreasing prices for stationary storage solutions.

In its latest outlook report, AFSIA said it had revised downward capacity figures presented in the past two outlook reports based on new information on the status of projects previously recorded as ‘operational’. For example, last year’s estimate of 3.7GW of new capacity additions has now been downgraded to around 2.6GW based on new data that had come to light, AFSIA said.

Read Next

October 30, 2025
Meridian Energy, a New Zealand state-owned energy company, has begun the construction of its 230GWh Ruakaka solar plant. 
October 29, 2025
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has provided US$142 million in financing for the construction of a 1GW solar and 1.3GWh BESS portfolio in Uzbekistan.
October 29, 2025
French firms TotalEnergies and EDF, with local partners, secured contracts for 400MW and 600MW solar projects in Saudi Arabia, supporting Vision 2030 renewable goals.
October 28, 2025
GreenYellow plans to invest US$116 million in Poland over the next three years to expand its installed capacity and customer base.
October 28, 2025
GoldenPeaks Capital secures EUR114 million (US$132 million) financing package for two solar PV Portfolio in Poland.
October 28, 2025
Chinese solar inverter producer GoodWe has launched a new “low noise, low weight” string inverter for the European corporate & industrial solar market.

Subscribe to Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Upcoming Webinars
November 12, 2025
10am PST / 1pm EST
Solar Media Events
November 25, 2025
Warsaw, Poland
Solar Media Events
December 2, 2025
Málaga, Spain
Solar Media Events
February 3, 2026
London, UK
Solar Media Events
March 10, 2026
Frankfurt, Germany