Addis Ababa, February 12, 2024 (FBC) – Last year, African countries ramped up the pace of bringing solar generators into operation: the capacity of solar panels put into operation across the region went from 3.1 gigawatts (GW) in 2022 to 3.7 GW in 2023, according to the Africa Solar Industry Association (AFSIA). The aggregate capacity of solar power plants operating in the region has reached 15.2 GW, the Global Energy Association reported.
Solar industry development continues to be driven by South Africa, which brought a little under 3 GW of solar generators into operation in 2023. As a result, the installed capacity of local solar power plants reached 7.2 GW (47% of the total for the entire continent).
Also among the top five countries in terms of bringing new facilities into operation are Burkina Faso (92 megawatts, MW), Mauritania (84 MW), Kenya (69.5 MW) and the Central African Republic (40 MW).
Unlike in most regions of the world, key contributions to capacity growth in Africa come not from energy companies, but from commercial and industrial enterprises that use photovoltaic panels to meet their own needs. This is caused by, among other things, grid infrastructure problems that reduce the efficiency of connecting new objects to the common grid, according to Global Energy Association.
For instance, the longest period of uninterrupted operation of South Africa’s power grid lasted a mere 19 days in 2023 (data from Eskom). As a result, business and industry often have no choice but to purchase and install solar generators to supply energy to non-residential facilities.
Another factor is the convenience of installing solar generators at industrial facilities. Previously, this factor with regard to Ethiopia was highlighted by Mikael Alemu, co-founder and CEO of 10 Green Gigawatt for Ethiopia. “There are 24 industrial parks operating in Ethiopia, each of them consisting of hangars with the footage of 6,000 and 11,000 square metres. Give me the chance to install solar panels on the roofs of those hangars, and I will provide for energy generation in the volumes exceeding the needs of the industrial parks,” he said at the Regional to Global: Africa conference that took place in February 2023 in Addis Ababa.
The convenience of standalone use for solar panels also plays an important role. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the global capacity of isolated power plants by the end of 2022 stood at 12.4 GW, of which 5.1 GW was provided by solar panels, Global Energy Association stated.