Private companies are driving the solar revolution in Africa

ANDFrench poverty is partly a consequence of energy poverty. On every other continent, the vast majority of people have access to electricity. In Africa, 600 million people, or 43% of the total, cannot easily light their homes or charge their phones. And those who nominally have mains electricity find it as reliable as a Scottish summer. More than three-quarters of African companies experience downtime; two-fifths say electricity is the main constraint on their business. If other sub-Saharan African countries had enjoyed as reliable a government as South Africa between 1995 and 2007, then the continent’s real interest rate GDP According to one academic article, per capita growth would be two percentage points higher, more than twice the actual rate. Since then, South Africa has also experienced power disruptions. So-called “decongestion” is probably the main reason why the economy has contracted in four of the last eight quarters.

Increasingly, solar energy is the solution. Last year, a record number of photovoltaic installations were installed in Africa (PV) capacity (although it still represents just 1% of total global capacity added), notes the African Solar Energy Industries Association (AFSIA), trade group. The sunniest in the world PV are built by utilities, but in Africa, 65% of new capacity in the last two years came from large companies that contracted directly with developers. These agreements are part of a decentralized revolution that could bring enormous benefits to African economies.