Africa installed a record 17 gigawatts of solar power in 2026, up 45% from 2025

Africa solar power installed a record 17 gigawatts in 2026

Africa solar power installations hit 17 gigawatts in 2026, a 45% rise on 2025 and the continent own third straight record year, according to a joint analysis by Ember, an energy research group, and African Tech Futures Lab. A gigawatt equals 1 billion watts, a unit large enough to describe a national power system. The analysts put the pace of installation at about 100,000 solar panels a day. Ember built the count from Chinese customs export data, calibrated against real world installation rates, instead of national statistics, because only 36 of Africa own 54 countries publish any official solar capacity data at all, only 14 of those covered 2025, and just 3 countries, South Africa, Tunisia and Tanzania, report more often than once a year.

Most of the boom never touches a big power plant

Between 2023 and 2025, Africa added 26 gigawatts of solar power in total, and Ember counts 75%, 20 gigawatts, of that as distributed solar, rooftop and small scale systems installed by businesses and households rather than big utility scale power plants. Global Energy Monitor documents 5.9 gigawatts of utility scale plants over the same 3 years, and the International Renewable Energy Agency counts just 0.2 gigawatts of dedicated off grid solar, systems that generate power without connecting to any shared grid at all. The analysts do not break the newest 17 gigawatts down the same way, but Ember chief analyst Dave Jones says the shift toward businesses and individuals choosing solar for themselves is already unmistakable.

It's incredible seeing so many businesses and individuals, across so many African countries, choosing to install solar.

Dave Jones, chief analyst at Ember. Source 1.

The fastest growing markets

19 countries grew more than 100% year on year in 2026. Democratic Republic of Congo led at 544%, ahead of Zimbabwe at 282%, Egypt at 176% and Zambia at 117%. Joel Nana, research director at African Tech Futures Lab and project manager at Sustainable Energy Africa, says the spread of small scale, distributed solar is outrunning the electricity grid itself in many places.

Across Africa, distributed energy resources are rapidly expanding, and in many cases, overtaking grid capacity.

Joel Nana, research director at African Tech Futures Lab and project manager at Sustainable Energy Africa. Source 1.

Where new solar already powers a tenth of the grid

In 10 countries, new solar installed in 2026 alone will generate more than 10% of that country own entire annual electricity supply, Ember states. Sierra Leone tops the list at 97%, and the 10 countries combined are home to 190 million people. All of 2026 new African solar together will generate about 23 terawatt hours a year, assuming a 15% capacity factor, the share of daylight hours a panel actually produces power at full strength. That is 2.3% of Africa own 982 terawatt hour total electricity generation in 2024, more than the continent own historic 2.2% average annual demand growth from 2014 to 2024.

South Africa own share of the boom is shrinking

South Africa supplied 52% of Africa own solar imports in 2023. By June 2026 that share had fallen to 20%, a drop of 32 percentage points calculated here from those 2 figures, and the first time South Africa own share has slipped below a fifth since 2019, as the boom spreads to more of the continent own 54 countries.