The African solar photovoltaic market has a bright future ahead of it. According to the Solarise Africa Market Report, the dynamism of this market is such that the installed capacity of solar energy could reach 30 gigawatts (GW) in 2030, or 6 times its current capacity.
The report, published just before the Intersolar fair in Munich, the world’s leading solar exhibition, was produced and published on May 13, 2019, by the German Solar Association (BSW-Solar) and the Becquerel Institute and was based on an analysis of the top 10 African countries with the highest solar potential. The countries are: Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Ghana, Algeria, Ethiopia, Angola, Namibia, South Africa and Tanzania. “The solar potential in Africa is at least as great as the demand and we are optimistic about the many markets we have analysed. We estimate that we will need about 2,000 terawatt hours (TWh) of photovoltaic energy to decarbonize the continent’s electricity consumption by 2040.” Said David Wedepohl, BSW-Solar’s Managing Director.
Africa, a major source of solar energy
The Solarise Africa Market Report shows that, for the time being, Africa accounts for only 1% of the world’s installed photovoltaic capacity. However, during 2018, the continent developed an additional 1 GW, representing a 25% growth rate for the sector.
This remarkable growth reflects the favourable nature of solar investments in Africa. With nearly 645 million people without direct access to electricity and solar irradiation twice as high as in most European countries, the fundamentals are such that solar projects are in a rush to the continent. This is the case of “Energy for All in Africa” led by Jean-Louis Borloo of France, which aims to electrify Africa in 10 years; the “New Deal for Energy in Africa” project, launched by the African Development Bank (ADB); “Scaling Solar” by the World Bank and “Power Africa“, launched in 2013 by the then American President Barack Obama.
In addition, in the face of the real economic and environmental challenges of power generation, many African governments have made access to electricity one of their priorities. In February 2016, Morocco inaugurated “Noor”, the seventh largest thermodynamic solar power plant in the world. Only eight months later, in October 2016, Senegal inaugurated “Senergy 2”, the largest solar power plant in West Africa with 75,000 photovoltaic panels and a capacity of 20 megawatts (MW), covering the needs of 200,000 Senegalese households. The most recent, the Zagtouli power plant in Burkina Faso, with a maximum production capacity of 33 MW, has in turn become the largest solar farm in West Africa.
Not to mention the silent revolution of off-grid and solar kits, which, deprived of pompous inaugurations, are less noisy, but could eventually provide access to electricity for more than half of the African populations in need of it.
Solar projects are rapidly developing in Africa and if the dynamic continues, the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts that by 2030, solar energy could represent 14% of the installed capacity in Africa.
Boris Ngounou