How Africa's green energy boom is stalled by ageing power grids

To draw and encourage investment in renewable energy on the continent, African nations must address grid infrastructure development.

Even so, finding money to invest in the industry continues to be another major obstacle.

Despite enormous renewable potential, Africa’s grid infrastructure is characterised by underinvestment, fragmentation, and technical difficulties, leaving over 600 million people without dependable electricity.

To support economic growth and climate goals, this calls for significant expansion, modernisation with digital tools and storage, and improved regional integration. “Sometimes we talk a lot about renewable energy sources, but we forget that infrastructure is needed to move electricity from one location to another. So, there has to be as well a lot of focus on building and modernising the grid to accommodate a lot of energy supply coming from renewables or other sources,” said Abdulaziz Alobaidli, chief operating officer of Masdar, the United Arab Emirates’ state-owned renewable energy company.

“So in some of the cases, we see there is a lot of interest to invest, but the grid infrastructure in Africa does not allow it, and hence the hesitance to invest.”

Mr Alobaidii was speaking during an interview with foreign media at the world’s largest single-sight solar plant, Al Dhafra Solar PV, in Abu Dhabi, during the recent Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week.

TAQA owns 40 per cent of the solar power plant, Masdar owns 20 per cent, and EDF Power Solutions and Jinko Power share the remaining 40 per cent.

It is an Independent Power Producer (IPP) project that was completed in June 2023 and is about 35 kilometres from Abu Dhabi.

Over 200,000 homes in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are powered by the 2.1GW of electricity it produces, which is supplied to the national grid by the plant’s off-taker Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC). The plant removes 2.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually by using nearly 4 million bifacial solar panels to produce enough electricity.

Masdar stated that by 2025, it had already installed 65GW of clean energy in more than 40 countries across six continents, and it is now aiming for a 100 per cent renewable energy portfolio by 2030.

The company last week signed a PPA for the 150-megawatt Quipungo Solar Photovoltaic project in Angola, marking its first PPA in the country. The Quipungo project is the first site under contract for Project Royal Sable, a planned 500MW renewable energy programme spread across three locations that will support Angola’s sustainable development goals and fortify the country’s southern power grid.

Rede Nacional de Transporte de Electricidade (RNT-EP), a state-owned off-taker, signed the contract.

Alobaidli stated that many African nations will find it difficult to finance renewable projects on their own unless the financial institutions and other countries focus on offering solutions.

The company has invested USD 45 billion so far, and by 2030, it plans to invest an additional $30 billion to $35 billion in project finance and equity, adding 10GW of new capacity annually on average.

A prudent combination of equity, green bonds, and long-term project financing backed by superior assets will be used to finance this expansion.

According to Alobaidli, Masdar, which is commemorating its 20th anniversary this year, has established a company called Infinity Power that focusses on Africa and is beginning to invest in the continent. They are holding discussions all over the continent to make sure that they develop projects, support the nations, and contribute to their prosperity.

Currently, South Africa, Egypt, Mauritania, Senegal, and Ivory Coast are the locations of the wind and solar projects. He claimed that by the end of 2025, Infinity Power, a business in which they own a 50 per cent stake, will have tripled its capacity from 1 GW in 2023 to more than 3 GW.

The COO stated that they would like to aim for up to 10 GW in Africa out of the 100 GW target by 2030. He said that, given the current state of the grid and other factors, this is a relevant size for the African continent.

Speaking virtually at the International Renewable Energy Agency’s General Assembly on January 12 in Abu Dhabi, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Gutteres affirmed the need for increased funding for grid infrastructure and renewable energy sources, stating that green energy is “unstoppable and irreversible.” According to him, clean energy investment doubled to $2.23 trillion in 2025, surpassing fossil fuel spending, and solar and wind power are breaking records.  However, infrastructure lags far behind as technology advances. The world invested USD 1 trillion in clean power generation last year, but less than half of that was in the grids required to carry it. As a result, permitting is slow, supply chains are strained, and most developing African nations lack access to affordable capital despite their enormous potential for renewable energy, he said.