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

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

Unlock unlimited access for 12 whole months of distinctive global analysis

Photovoltaics International is now included.

  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Unlimited digital access to the PV Tech Power journal catalogue
  • Unlimited digital access to the Photovoltaics International journal catalogue
  • Access to more than 1,000 technical papers
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

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.

17 June 2025
Napa, USA
PV Tech has been running PV ModuleTech Conferences since 2017. PV ModuleTech USA, on 17-18 June 2025, will be our fourth PV ModulelTech conference dedicated to the U.S. utility scale solar sector. The event will gather the key stakeholders from solar developers, solar asset owners and investors, PV manufacturing, policy-making and and all interested downstream channels and third-party entities. The goal is simple: to map out the PV module supply channels to the U.S. out to 2026 and beyond.

Read Next

April 24, 2025
Floating solar remains constrained by a range of technical and regulatory uncertainties, according to an IEA PVPS report.
April 24, 2025
The US state of New Jersey has launched its third solicitation of the CSI Program, seeking 300MW of solar PV and 160MWh of energy storage.
April 23, 2025
Germany’s latest public auction for ground-mounted solar PV capacity ended “significantly oversubscribed”, according to the German electricity regulator, the Bundesnetzagentur.
Premium
April 23, 2025
Analysis: Carrie Xiao explores the factors behind the recent cancellation of China’s PV module mega-tender and their wider implications for equipment procurement.
April 23, 2025
Italian renewable energy developer Limes has sold a 287MW portfolio of solar PV and wind power projects to an unnamed “international independent power producer (IPP)”.
April 23, 2025
The New South Wales government has said that 3.5GW of solar PV, BESS and wind have been granted the right to connect to the South West REZ.

Subscribe to Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Solar Media Events
April 29, 2025
Dallas, Texas
Media Partners, Solar Media Events
May 7, 2025
Munich, Germany
Solar Media Events
May 21, 2025
London, UK
Solar Media Events
June 17, 2025
Napa, USA
Solar Media Events
July 1, 2025
London, UK