Africa installed 4.5GW of new solar PV capacity in 2025, marking a record for annual additions and a 54% increase compared to the previous year, according to the Global Solar Council (GSC).

The figures come from the GSC’s newly published report, Africa Market Outlook for Solar PV: 2026–2029. While solar deployment across the continent remains concentrated in a handful of leading markets, the data also indicates a gradual broadening of growth.

South Africa led Africa in new installations with 1.6GW of newly operational capacity in 2025, followed by Nigeria with 803MW and Egypt with 500MW. The top ten markets together accounted for 90% of all new solar capacity added during the year, underscoring the dominant role of established markets in driving overall expansion.

At the same time, several mid-sized and emerging markets recorded notable progress. Morocco added 204MW of new capacity in 2025, while Zambia installed 139MW. In total, eight African countries commissioned at least 100MW of new solar capacity last year, compared with just four in the previous year. This suggests that Africa’s solar sector may be gradually becoming less dependent on a small group of leading players for new capacity additions.

The GSC report also notes that 56% of installed capacity is in the utility-scale segment, while the remaining 44% is attributed to distributed solar. However, the distributed sector is described as “clearly underestimated” and more difficult to track accurately. Challenges in capturing data for off-grid and small-scale commercial and residential systems may help explain discrepancies between the GSC’s 2025 figures and those published by the African Solar Industry Association (AFSIA).