Nairobi, Kenya – February 10, 2026 – Africa’s solar energy sector experienced its most significant growth year in 2025, with installations surging by an impressive 54% year-on-year. A new report by the Global Solar Council (GSC), developed in collaboration with African member associations and supported by GET.invest and Octopus Energy, reveals a continent undergoing a “dual-track solar transition”.
This unprecedented expansion is characterized by both large-scale, grid-connected projects backed by public and development finance, and a rapidly expanding ecosystem of privately financed rooftop, commercial, and distributed solar systems.
The GSC’s “Africa Market Outlook for Solar PV: 2026-2029” highlights that this robust growth is not confined to a few leading nations but is spreading across a wider group of African countries.
This diversification reduces reliance on early adopters and strengthens the overall resilience of the continental solar sector. Data indicates that Africa installed approximately 4.5 GW of new solar PV capacity in 2025, marking a sharp acceleration in annual deployment across various regions.
While established markets continue to lead, the report points to a significant trend of broader market participation. In 2025, the top 10 solar markets accounted for around 90% of new capacity additions, with South Africa (1.6 GW), Nigeria (803 MW), Egypt (500 MW), and Algeria (400 MW) at the forefront.
Crucially, several mid-sized and emerging markets, including Morocco (204 MW), Zambia (139 MW), Tunisia (120 MW), Botswana (120 MW), Ghana (92 MW), and Chad (86 MW), each added substantial new capacity. This expansion saw the number of countries installing 100 MW or more of solar capacity double from four in 2024 to eight in 2025, with Ghana and Chad nearing this threshold.
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Sonia Dunlop, CEO of the Global Solar Council, emphasized the transformative potential of this growth. “Solar + storage is the hope of Africa. This is the technology that can bring energy access, sustainable development, green growth and resilience to natural disasters and extreme weather,” she stated.
This perspective underscores solar’s critical role in addressing Africa’s energy deficit, fostering economic development, and building climate resilience.
The report also sheds light on the often-underestimated distributed capacity. While utility-scale projects accounted for 56% of reported installations, the 44% attributed to distributed solar is acknowledged to be significantly underreported due to tracking difficulties. The substantial import of 18.2 GW of solar modules into Africa in 2025, which exceeds two years of projected utility-scale deployment, strongly indicates a massive and less accurately reported growth in distributed, commercial, and rooftop solar.
This consumer-led boom is driven by rising electricity demand, falling technology costs, and increasing energy access needs.
Looking ahead, the GSC report projects a 21% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2029, positioning Africa as one of the world’s fastest-growing solar markets. This trajectory, however, hinges on aligning financing, planning, and regulatory frameworks with the evolving market reality.
The report warns that without reform, misalignment could slow deployment, raise system costs, and limit solar’s economic value. Realizing Africa’s full solar potential requires fit-for-purpose finance models for distributed solar, improved data collection, and accelerated investment in storage, grids, and system flexibility to ensure reliability and support industrial and commercial energy demand
By Thuita Gatero, Managing Editor, Africa Digest News. He specializes in conversations around data centers, AI, cloud infrastructure, and energy.
