Yet the continent had just 21.5 gigawatts of installed solar capacity in 2024, according to the International Energy Agency. By comparison, China, the global leader in solar power, added 198 GW between January and May this year alone.
What’s holding solar back in Africa?
“The problem that you have in many African countries is that you have scattered, low density population centers,” says Bruno Idini, an analyst at the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Issues vary from country to country, but national grids often struggle to expand beyond cities due to high infrastructure costs and bottlenecks, regulatory hurdles, unclear government policies, and sometimes, conflict and unrest.
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Africa gets more sunshine hours than any other continent. It has some of the [highest levels of solar irradiance](https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/466331592817725242/pdf/Global-Photovoltaic-Power-Potential-by-Country.pdf) — the power of the sun per square meter — in the world, with “[almost unlimited](https://www.afdb.org/en/news-and-events/african-development-banks-desert-power-initiative-71072)” potential for solar energy according to the African Development Bank.
[Solar has been touted](https://www.cnn.com/world/africa/africa-solar-power-potential-off-grid-hnk-spc?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=missions&utm_source=reddit) as the obvious solution to provide clean energy to the millions of people living without electricity.
Yet the continent had just 21.5 gigawatts of installed solar capacity in 2024, according to the International Energy Agency. By comparison, China, the global leader in solar power, added 198 GW between January and May this year alone.
What’s holding solar back in Africa?
“The problem that you have in many African countries is that you have scattered, low density population centers,” says Bruno Idini, an analyst at the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Issues vary from country to country, but national grids often struggle to expand beyond cities due to high infrastructure costs and bottlenecks, regulatory hurdles, unclear government policies, and sometimes, conflict and unrest.