Solar Data Insights Report 2010-2024 provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the current status and trajectory of Africa’s rapidly expanding solar generation sector.
Based on constantly updated proprietary data, in-house analytics supported by graphs, tables and maps, It offers an essential grounding for any investor, lender or developer charting a strategy in this dynamic market.
It comes with an excel containing underlying aggregate data from African Energy Live Data, our proprietary database of more than 6,200 power projects.
This means the report not only provides incisive read-outs to support strategic decision-making, but also allows users to set their own parameters, and to develop and test conclusions within their own analytical frameworks.
Key features
- Data and analysis supporting the view that solar installed capacity (MW) projects capacity will reach an estimated 18GW by 2030 - a 1.5 times increase on 2020
- Comparative maps of solar capacity in Africa in 2019 and 2024, indicating an increasing likelihood of tremendous growth.
- 44 pages of analysis, graphs and data
- 32 graphs, 14 tables, and other maps and infographics
- Case studies on five large-scale solar procurement programmes
- International Finance Corporation’s Scaling Solar initiative
- Egypt’s Feed-in-Tariff I & II
- Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy Noor programme
- KfW-backed Global Energy Transfer Feed-in-Tariff (GETFiT) programme.
- South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Procurement Programme (REIPPP).
- Customisable excel of background data with 288 tables
- Comprehensive information on installed solar capacity - compared with other fuel types by country, region and pan-African from 2010 to 2024.
- Analysis of falling costs of solar by technology, ownership and project size, 2010-24
- The data used is sourced form our African Energy Live Data platform, where each entry corresponds to a power plant on the ground that African Energy’s team has investigated and verified
Reasons to buy:
- Use our report to gain an understanding of how solar trends may impact on your operations and investments.
- Access and analyse our data through an interactive Excel-based dashboard
- Make decisions supported by independent power generation forecasts based on the actual project development pipeline rather than estimates.
- Compare historic trends, current position and planned developments of solar generation by country, or region or see how the sector has developed across Africa.
- Understand from the data how certain solar markets are expected to see slower growth while others are set for a very steep growth trajectory.
- See a clear picture of how solar is and will be positioned in the wider energy mix.
- Learn how falling costs of solar have impacted on technologies employed, ownership and project size, 2010-24 and how these trends will impact on total installed capacity.
- Understand the possible longer-term (2019-30) potential of solar across Africa
Table of Contents
- PDF Report contents
- Introduction: an overview of Africa’s solar breakthrough
- Economic view of Africa
- Installed capacity of Africa, 2010-24 (by fuel type, country-by-country and pan-African)
- Solar capacity in Africa, 2010-24 (by region)
- Scaling Solar in Africa
- Installed capacity of North Africa, 2010-24
- Egypt’s Solar Feed-in Tariff I and II
- Morocco’s Noor Programme
- Installed capacity of East Africa, 2010-24
- Get Fit in Uganda
- Installed capacity of West Africa, 2010-24
- Installed capacity of Southern Africa, 2010-24
- South Africa’s REIPPP
- Get Fit in Zambia
- Installed capacity of Central Africa, 2010-24
- Solar capacity in Africa, 2019 (map, distribution and intensity of installed solar capacity (MW) and average solar PV output (kWh) by country)
- Solar capacity in Africa, 2024 (map, distribution and intensity of installed solar capacity (MW) and average solar PV output (kWh) by country)
- Solar growth in Africa, 2010-24 (compared with other fuel types and country-by-country)
- Falling costs of solar by technology, ownership and project size, 2010-24
- Total installed capacity (MW) of technology, ownership and project size, 2010-24
- Long term solar installed capacity (MW) projection, 2019-30
Data Excel contents
- Capacity by status
- Total installed capacity by Fuel (MW), 2010-2024
- Total installed capacity by Fuel (%), 2010-2024
- Installed solar capacity by country (MW)
- Installed solar capacity by technology (MW)
- Installed solar capacity by technology (%)
- New solar capacity additions per year by technology (MW)
- Total solar operating per year by technology (Number of projects)
- New solar capacity additions per year by technology (% of new additions)
- Installed solar capacity by ownership type (MW)
- Installed solar capacity by ownership type (%)
- New solar capacity additions, per year by ownership (MW)
- Total solar operating per year by ownership (Number of projects)
- New solar capacity additions, per year by ownership (% increase on previous year)
- Total solar capacity additions per year, by capacity size (MW)
Executive Summary
Over the last decade, solar technologies have emerged as an affordable and scalable power source for many countries across the African continent. Utility-scale solar may now be able to compete with even cheaper thermal generation, let alone the more costly and polluting diesel and other solutions. As equipment prices have continued to fall, financing has become more readily available, which has given solar great momentum. Cost reductions are expected to continue into the next decade and with an increasing number of governments and financial institutions committing to tackling climate change, solar’s expansion across the continent appears inevitable.
Solar power’s trajectory across Africa is highlighted by Solar Data Insights Report 2010-24, via an analysis of past trends, a review of current solar generation (including public and private procurement initiatives) and a discussion on the future path towards 2030. Given the right project structures, policy choices and access to finance the future looks bright, and substantially less polluting.
African Energy’s Solar Data Insights Report 2010-24 is intended to provide a snapshot of the continent’s electricity supply industry (ESI) and the increasing role of solar technologies in its development. The focus of Solar Data Insights Report 2010-24 is on-grid generation, drawing on rigorously researched project information from the African Energy Live Data resource. It also draws on African Energy’s extensive experience of monitoring and working in a range of countries to build a picture of solar markets and provide fit-for-purpose information for financial institutions, project developers, investors and other stakeholders.
Methodology
Data used in this report are sourced from African Energy Live Data, an innovative online database which, as this report went to press, contains more than 6,200 power generation projects across Africa. Being constantly updated, Live Data provides a highly accurate view of African electricity generation projects. This allows Live Data to provide instant access to the latest aggregated statistics for this report.
Electricity generation variables presented in this report are neither estimates nor based on modelling. Historical data is accurate and fully verified, whereas future years show the pipeline of planned projects. This data is the sum of projects with announced commercial operations dates and have achieved some milestones indicating that the announced timeline is still achievable. As a result, they do not take into account government targets, planned future procurement rounds or projects in early stage development without announced commissioning dates.
Live Data shows the development of solar projects is reducing, with an average of 28 months between PPA signing and commissioning. Therefore, an undetermined amount of new capacity will inevitably be brought online through to 2024, in addition to the already announced pipeline. Many of these projects are either yet to be announced, or remain in the early stages of development. As such, the pipeline will inevitably change and data for 2023-24 should be treated as purely indicative.
While African Energy’s proprietary content forms the bedrock of the report, external data sources are used to help inform this analysis.
Companies Mentioned (Partial List)
A selection of companies mentioned in this report includes, but is not limited to:
- Acwa Power
- Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)
- Deutsche Bank
- Engie
- Eskom
- International Finance Corporation (IFC)
- International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena)
- KfW
- Meridiam
- Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (Masen)
- Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (Miga)
- Office National de l’Electricité et de l’Eau Potable (ONEE)
- Siemens Gamesa
- Ugandan Energy Regulatory Authority
