In 2025, Africa marked its fastest year of solar growth on record, with total solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity additions rising by 54 per cent compared with 2024. Against this backdrop of accelerated transformation, Egypt has emerged as one of the continent’s most dynamic solar energy markets, adding 500 megawatts (MW) of new capacity and cementing its position among the top three markets across Africa. This expansion forms part of a broader shift in the continent’s energy sector, one that holds profound implications for energy security, economic development and the global transition to low carbon systems.
Africa’s solar market has entered a new era. According to the Global Solar Council’s Africa Market Outlook for Solar PV: 2026–2029, the continent installed approximately 4.5 GW of new solar capacity in 2025, a leap that represents a 54 per cent year on year increase, the fastest pace of growth recorded to date. This surge is not concentrated solely in a few established locales; solar deployment continued to broaden across diverse markets, with eight countries exceeding 100 MW of annual installations, up from four in the previous year.
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The top four markets accounted for nearly 90 per cent of new capacity: South Africa led with around 1.6 GW, followed by Nigeria at 803 MW, Egypt at 500 MW, and Algeria at 400 MW. Mid sized markets such as Morocco, Zambia, Tunisia, Botswana, Ghana and Chad also contributed meaningfully to the continent’s build out, reflecting the expanding depth and maturity of Africa’s solar ecosystem.
Egypt’s addition of 500 MW of PV capacity in 2025 positions the nation as the third largest solar market in Africa for that year. This achievement has both symbolic and practical significance: it demonstrates Egypt’s accelerating commitment to renewable energy and reflects a deliberate strategy to diversify its power mix and strengthen grid resilience.
Beyond raw capacity, Egypt is also advancing more sophisticated solar models. The launch of its first large scale hybrid solar project, combining approximately 1.1 GW of solar capacity with a 100 MW/200 MWh battery storage system, marks a transition from traditional PV deployment to integrated solar plus storage solutions. These hybrid systems reinforce supply reliability and are critical for managing the intermittency inherent in solar generation.
This development aligns with national strategy and infrastructure goals emphasised by Egypt’s Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC), which underscores the need to modernise grid infrastructure, improve stability, and expand renewable penetration. The government’s energy target is ambitious: to raise the share of renewables in the electricity mix to at least 42 per cent by 2030.
Policy, Partnerships and Pipeline Growth
Egypt’s solar trajectory is supported by a combination of regulatory impetus, international finance and public private collaboration. Major investments flowing into the sector illustrate both confidence and scale. In recent years, Egypt signed significant renewable energy agreements totalling $1.8 billion, including contracts with international developers such as Scatec and Sungrow to erect multi gigawatt solar capacity together with battery storage facilities. These projects, including a 1.7 GW plant with 4 GWh of storage planned for Upper Egypt, are among the largest of their kind on the continent.
Financing mechanisms are central to energy transitions. Egypt’s regulatory environment, anchored in clear targets and evolving frameworks, has created favourable conditions for investment while balancing national development goals with commercial viability. Strengthening local capacity and integrating renewable energy into broader economic planning are key components of this strategy.
Egypt’s rise forms part of a pan African solar narrative that’s gaining momentum. Alongside its solar expansion, multiple African economies are deepening their engagement with renewables. In addition to the top markets, emerging players such as Botswana, Ghana and Chad — where latent potential has historically been constrained by financing and grid integration challenges — are beginning to deliver substantial solar capacity gains.
While annual additions reached 4.5 GW in 2025, medium term forecasts suggest that Africa could cumulatively add more than 31 GW of solar capacity by 2029, more than six times the annual total achieved in 2025 alone. Such growth will underpin energy access improvements and has the potential to reshape Africa’s broader energy mix, reducing reliance on fossil fuels and contributing to climate mitigation objectives.
Despite this rapid expansion, challenges remain. Structural barriers such as limited access to affordable financing, grid congestion, and regulatory complexity continue to slow deployment in some regions. Strengthening national energy storage strategies, streamlining permitting processes, and improving grid planning transparency are widely acknowledged as critical enablers of sustained solar growth.
Viewed in a global context, Africa’s solar acceleration is especially striking. Estimated module imports far outstrip reported utility scale installations, indicating that commercial, rooftop, and off grid solar systems, particularly in distributed applications are expanding even more rapidly than tracked data suggests. Analysts estimate that Africa could ultimately account for closer to 2.6 per cent of global installed solar capacity, a figure far higher than many official tallies, underlining the strategic importance of the region in the global renewable energy transition.
This broader surge reflects underlying global shifts: solar energy is becoming the fastest growing source of new electricity generation worldwide, with dramatic cost declines in PV modules and storage systems making deployment increasingly economically attractive. Africa, with its abundant solar resource potential and rapidly expanding population, is central to this energy transformation.
Egypt’s Role in a Continental Solar Renaissance
Egypt’s 2025 solar expansion is emblematic of a wider African solar renaissance, one defined by innovation, diversification and accelerating deployment. With a substantial pipeline of projects, supportive policies, and significant investment inflows, Egypt is poised to build on its recent gains and play a leadership role in Africa’s renewable future.
Across the continent, the solar sector’s rapid growth is not merely quantitative; it is reshaping energy systems, powering economies, and bringing thousands closer to reliable and affordable electricity. As Africa advances toward its 2030 renewable targets, Egypt’s example highlights how strategic vision, strong policy frameworks and global partnerships can together drive transformative outcomes in the energy landscape.
