Africa can use hydropower not just to add more clean megawatts, but to balance wind and solar, store energy at scale, and harden grids against climate shocks, if countries prioritize modernization, diversified hydro (large + small + pumped storage), cross-border trading, and strict sustainability standards.
In 2024, Africa commissioned more than 4.5 GW of new hydropower, over double 2023, taking hydro to about 20% of the continent’s electricity and lifting installed capacity to roughly 47 GW. Yet only ~10% of Africa’s technical hydro potential has been tapped, with ~16 GW under construction and ~18.5 GW approved. This is a rare opportunity to make hydro the stabilizing backbone of an increasingly solar- and wind-rich system.
From “more megawatts” to “more flexibility”
Hydropower is surging: Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere began operations (six of nine units in 2024), Ethiopia’s GERD added 800 MW, Uganda’s Karuma (600 MW) and Cameroon’s Nachtigal (420 MW) reached full commissioning. Beyond headline dams, the trend includes refurbishments, pumped storage, and small hydro, precisely the tools that let grids absorb record wind/solar while keeping lights on.
But climate volatility is real. In 2024, drought forced Zambia’s Kariba North Bank to cut output to ~120 MW, a stark reminder to design and operate hydro for a drier, more variable future. That doesn’t argue against hydro; it argues for diversified hydro portfolios, smarter operations, and regional trading to spread risk.
Four fast wins to make hydro the “shock absorber” for African renewables
1) Modernise and optimise what already exists.
Upgrades to turbines, governors, digital controls and sediment management can add low-cost capacity and, crucially, flexibility (faster ramping and regulation) without new reservoirs. Africa’s hydro fleet has multiple plants due for uprating; recent refurbishments across the continent (e.g., Inga II turbine work) show the lift available when legacy assets are overhauled.
2) Build diverse hydro, not just big dams.
Mix large storage, run-of-river, and small/mini-hydro in headwaters. Smaller schemes are faster to build, closer to load in rural areas, and less exposed to multi-year hydrological swings, perfect complements to utility-scale solar and wind. Africa’s 2024 momentum proves large projects can land, but a pipeline balanced with distributed hydro will spread climatic and social risk.
3) Add pumped storage to anchor wind/solar growth.
Pumped storage is the world’s dominant storage technology and the only one that scales to multi-GW, multi-hour durations with black-start and grid-stability services. North Africa is already moving: Morocco’s Abdelmoumen (≈350 MW) pumped storage is being delivered to help integrate variable renewables. Expect more PSH sites across steep terrains from the Atlas to the Drakensberg.
4) Hybridise hydro with floating solar (FPV).
Floating PV on hydropower reservoirs cuts evaporation, uses existing grid interconnections, and smooths seasonal swings: PV shines in dry, sunny months; hydro saves water for evenings and peaks, behaving like a “virtual battery.” Early African pilots, such as at Bui in Ghana, illustrate the model.
Make the continent’s power pools do more “balancing work”
Hydrology varies by basin and season. That’s good news if countries trade. Modelling for West Africa shows existing and planned hydro can materially cut the storage/backup needed to integrate high shares of wind/solar; in East Africa, the new Kenya–Tanzania 400 kV link (completed November 2024) strengthens the Eastern Africa Power Pool and makes it easier to wheel surplus hydro or solar where it’s needed.
The continental play is simple: invest in interconnectors and market rules that pay for flexibility and ancillary services, not just energy.
Climate resilience has to be designed in not hoped for
Drought will recur. Building climate-proof hydro means:
- Multiple climate scenarios in design (not single historical hydrology), with robust spillway and low-flow strategies.
- Watershed management (reforestation, upstream erosion control) to slow sedimentation that robs reservoirs of storage and turbines of efficiency.
- Operating rules that treat hydro as a flex resource backing wind/solar, not always-on baseload.
- Regional diversity so one dry basin doesn’t crash a national grid.
Evidence is piling up, from Kariba’s constraints to peer-reviewed modelling, that resilience isn’t optional. It’s central to hydro’s value proposition in an energy-climate era.
Do hydro right to keep public trust
The investment pipeline is growing: Malawi’s Mpatamanga (≈358 MW) secured a major World Bank grant in 2025, structured as a public-private partnership to add flexible capacity on the Shire River. But speed cannot trump standards.
The Hydropower Sustainability Standard (Africa’s first Gold rating went to Zambia’s Ngonye Falls in 2024) and the World Bank’s dam-safety guidance provide guardrails to avoid legacy resettlement and ecosystem mistakes that have dogged some past projects. Expect lenders and off-takers to increasingly require these benchmarks.
Also read: Ethiopia Expands Renewable Energy to Fight Climate Impacts and Power Millions
How to turn hydro into Africa’s renewable “balancer”
- Reward flexibility, not just energy. Create ancillary-service markets and capacity payments so hydro is paid for ramping, inertia, black-start, and frequency control that benefit the whole wind/solar fleet.
- Prioritise modernisation in national plans. Updates and digitalisation are the cheapest clean megawatts you can buy, delivered faster than greenfield builds.
- Scale pumped storage where topography allows. Siting it near major wind/solar hubs and transmission nodes to relieve curtailment and evening peaks, Morocco’s trajectory is a useful template.
- Mainstream floating PV–hydro hybrids. Start with technical audits of existing reservoirs to identify no-regret FPV footprints that avoid shipping, fishing, or biodiversity conflicts.
- Finish the interconnectors. Close gaps in EAPP, SAPP, and WAPP so seasonal surpluses move fast across borders, reducing each country’s need to “overbuild” firm capacity.
- Enforce sustainability standards. Align new builds and rehabs with Hydropower Sustainability Standard criteria; tie concessional finance and guarantees to verified social-environmental performance.
