Did Africa Record Its Fastest Solar Growth In 2025?
In March 2026, a reddit user, sg_plumber claimed that Africa recorded its fastest solar growth in 2025 with 4.5 gigawatts, and there could be a 6 times energy surge by 2029. This claim, shared on December 16, 2025 was picked from the SPOTAI platform, a disinformation tracker tool.
VERIFICATION
According to a report published in the Global Solar Council journal, Africa recorded its fastest annual solar growth in 2025, with about 4.5 gigawatts (GW) of new solar photovoltaic capacity installed across the continent. Reports also project a major expansion by 2029.
The Global Solar Council’s Africa Market Outlook 2026–2029 notes that the installed solar capacity in 2025 represented a 54% increase when compared with 2024. The report stated that 2025 was the continent’s fastest year of solar growth on record and projected more than 31.5 GW of additional solar capacity by 2029, if current trends continue.
In the breakdown, utility-scale solar projects accounted for about 56% of reported installations in 2025, while distributed and rooftop solar systems made up an estimated 44%. From this, the claim that growth was ‘led by utility-scale projects’ is substantially correct.
The statement linking solar growth to energy access, sustainable development, green growth, and resilience to natural disasters and extreme weather was extracted from comments made by Sonia Dunlop, CEO of Global Solar Council. She described solar-plus-storage technology as critical for Africa’s development and climate resilience.
NV-A’s analysis of the report found that solar expansion was driven by several factors, including rising electricity demand, unreliable national grids, declining solar equipment costs, growing battery storage adoption, and increased investment in both public utility projects and private rooftop systems. The top Africa with solar additions in 2025 are South Africa, Nigeria, and Egypt.
The claim of adding six times last year’s capacity by 2029 is an ambitious forecast often found in market intelligence reports.
Currently, Africa accounts for only 2% of global clean energy investment. This is is expected to rise slightly to 2.7% by 2030. Reaching the 6x target would require a massive influx of international capital and grid infrastructure upgrades.
CONCLUSION
The claim that Africa recorded its fastest solar growth in 2025 with 4.5 gigawatts, and there could be a 6 times energy surge by 2029, is TRUE. Available evidence confirms that Africa recorded its fastest solar growth in 2025 and is projected to significantly expand solar deployment by 2029. However, the “more than six times” figure refers to projected future expansion over several years rather than a single year jump.
