City, Country — Africa Experiences Record Solar Growth in 2025, But Financial Gaps Threaten Future Expansion. Cape Town, South Africa — Africa recorded a remarkable surge in solar energy installations in 2025, with a year-on-year increase of 54 percent, according to a new report by the Global Solar Council (GSC). This growth is attributed to a dual transition in the solar sector, involving both utility-scale projects and privately financed rooftop and distributed systems.
The Africa Market Outlook for Solar PV: 2026-2029, published by the GSC in collaboration with its African member associations, reveals a significant expansion in the deployment of solar energy across the continent. This trend is being driven by distributed systems and the growing demand for reliable energy sources.
The report highlights that while Africa installed approximately 4.
5 gigawatts (GW) of new solar PV capacity in 2025, the continent’s solar market is becoming more diversified, with households and businesses increasingly adopting solar solutions beyond traditional utility-scale projects. Solar deployment is spreading across more African countries, with South Africa leading the way, followed by Nigeria, Egypt, and Algeria.
Several mid — sized and emerging markets, including Morocco, Zambia, Tunisia, Botswana, Ghana, and Chad, also contributed substantially to the growth in solar capacity in 2025.
According to the GSC, the rapid expansion of distributed solar capacity is a clear sign of market diversification.
However, financing gaps remain a significant challenge, potentially slowing down the momentum of solar energy adoption across the continent. “
The Africa Market Outlook for Solar PV: 2026-2029 finds that the next phase of growth will be shaped less by headline capacity targets and more by system readiness, “said Zoisa North-Bond, CEO of Octopus Energy Generation. “.
With the right policy and market signals, however, the upside is significant: the report’s medium-term outlook suggests Africa could install over 33 GW of solar capacity by 2029 — more than six times the capacity added in 2025.”
The report also notes that around 82 percent of clean energy finance in Africa still comes from public and development sources, leaving financing frameworks largely geared toward large, utility-scale projects. This gap between market reality and existing financing models could slow deployment, raise system costs, and limit the economic value of solar energy.
To support the next phase of growth, the Global Solar Council calls for finance models that are better suited to distributed and consumer — led solar, improved data collection and planning frameworks that reflect where and how solar is being deployed, and accelerated investment in storage, grids, and system flexibility. “
Without reform, it could slow deployment, raise system costs, and limit the economic value of solar, “North-Bond added. “With the right policy and market signals, however, the upside is significant.”.
The report’s medium-term outlook suggests that Africa could install over 33 GW of solar capacity by 2029, as distributed and utility-scale markets expand in parallel across a growing number of countries. Realizing this opportunity will depend on aligning finance, planning, and regulation with market reality.
*Additional reporting by ImNews | Sources consulted: 5*
