Solar Energy Capacity in Africa

by Shola Adediran

Solar energy capacity refers to the maximum amount of solar energy that can be generated by a specific system or in a particular location within a given period. This capacity can vary from small residential homes to large commercial industries that are spread throughout the country.

In Africa from our findings the main reason residents adopt solar energy energy is due to the un-reliable grid power supply.

All power units were recorded Megawatts (MW). Where one megawatt is equivalent powering 800 homes during a 24 hour period.

Here is a summary of our key findings:

1. The average solar energy capacity in africa is “217 MW”. Where over 80% of the countries did’nt produce over “200 MW”.

2. By region, Southern Africa generated “6,652MW” followed by Northern Africa with “3,392 MW”. Eastern Africa led by “767 MW” almost as close to Western Africa “763 MW”.

3. South Africa is the largest producer of solar power capacity in the continent at 6,326 MW. They generate 3.7x as much solar power than the Egypt at 1,724 MW.

4. Nigeria is the 16th country in Africa that produces the most solar power.

We have detailed data and information of our findings below.

[display-map id='1815']

No	Countries	Energy in MW	Regions
1	South Africa	6,326	Southern
2	Egypt	1,724	Northern
3	Morocco	858	Northern
4	Algeria	460	Northern
5	Kenya	307	Eastern
6	Senegal	263	Western
7	Tunisia	200	Northern
8	Namibia	176	Southern
9	Malawi²¹	140	Eastern
10	Sudan	140	Northern
11	Ghana	110	Western
12	Mauritius²¹	110	Eastern
13	Zambia	100	Southern
14	Mauritania²¹	90	Western
15	Uganda	90	Eastern
16	Nigeria	70	Western
17	Burkina Faso²¹	60	Western
18	Mali²¹	60	Western
19	Mozambique²¹	60	Eastern
20	Togo	30	Western
21	Madagascar²¹	30	Eastern
22	Niger	30	Western
23	Rwanda²¹	30	Eastern
24	Zimbabwe	20	Southern
25	Democratic Republic of the Congo	20	Central
26	Ethiopia²¹	20	Eastern
27	Somalia	20	Eastern
28	Tanzania	14	Eastern
29	Cameroon	10	Central
30	Botswana²¹	10	Southern
31	Burundi	10	Eastern
32	Cabo Verde²¹	10	Western
33	Cote d'Ivoire²¹	10	Western
34	Eritrea²¹	10	Eastern
35	Eswatini²¹	10	Southern
36	Guinea²¹	10	Western
37	Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire)²¹	0.07	Western
38	Libya²¹	0.04	Northern
39	Seychelles	0	Eastern
40	Chad	0	Central
41	Benin	0	Western
42	Central African Republic	0	Central
43	Comoros	0	Eastern
44	Djibouti	0	Eastern
45	Equatorial Guinea	0	Central
46	Gabon	0	Central
47	Gambia	0	Western
48	Guinea-Bissau	0	Western
49	Lesotho	0	Southern
50	Liberia	0	Western
51	Sao Tome and Principe	0	Central
52	Sierra Leone	0	Western
53	South Sudan	0	Eastern
54	Angola	0	Southern

All data was sourced from ember-climate.org, manually edited and verified from the web with sources like statista.com and trade.gov. In many countries data from 2022 hadn’t been analyzed but this went back as far as 2021.
Stats from 2021 were notified with ” ²¹ “

Raw data: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HV-A8lOCvsOMU2hZDiYQvS1cCJMC1p58VwSQSHGZ6Us/edit#gid=0

Processed data: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HV-A8lOCvsOMU2hZDiYQvS1cCJMC1p58VwSQSHGZ6Us/edit#gid=0

Source: https://ember-climate.org/data-catalogue/yearly-electricity-data/

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