Daniel Duma is a research fellow and Miquel Muñoz Cabré is a senior scientist at the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI).
Large-scale renewable energy is an unlikely success story in sub-Saharan Africa.
As our new work shows, between 2013 and 2023, the installed capacity in wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) energy in the region increased by a factor of 16. And that excludes South Africa, which has installed capacity in wind and solar PV energy of approximately 9,000 MW – higher than all the rest of the sub-Saharan region combined.
This is a remarkable feat. From almost zero in 2010, to around 200 MW in 2013 and then 3,500 MW in 2023, with additional capacity under construction in 2025, utility-scale projects are being developed, financed, built and connected to the grid in nearly all sub-Saharan African countries. This has happened despite major challenges, including conflict, political turmoil, the COVID-19 pandemic, ballooning inflation and public debt.
Total variable renewable energy in sub-Saharan Africa in MW (excluding South Africa)
Efforts thus far have not accomplished enough, with too many people and economies still lacking access to electricity. But this does not make the achievements any less significant, especially when we consider how difficult it is to finance even one moderately sized project in countries where the energy system as a whole is not financially viable for investments. The fact that progress continues despite this monumental barrier is impressive.
What are the secrets that underpin this accomplishment?
Investment despite struggling utilities
The achievements at the utility scale are the result of sustained efforts of various actors in dealing with risks. This work entails offering investors an acceptable level of comfort that they will recover their investment with a decent return on the capital they commit. With most countries in the region affected by high levels of sovereign debt, depreciating currencies, and the poor financial health of public utilities (the buyers of energy from such projects), this is no simple task.
Investors, private or quasi-private (multilateral development banks and development finance institutions) deploy capital into project structures that depend on revenues from utilities that are known to face difficulties in meeting their payment obligations. While many such utilities are undergoing corporate turnaround processes, it will take time for them to improve their financial status. In the meantime, despite these fundamental challenges, projects continued to be developed, financed and built.
Trial and error has been making these achievements possible. Among them: using viable businesses as anchors for additional investments; adopting leasing models; employing a wide variety of risk-mitigation and transfer instruments; and creating programs that offer guarantees and insurance options with different features and implications.
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All this trial and error generated significant results: In Malawi, the Salima and Golomoti solar PV plus storage projects added approximately 20% (80 MW) to the country’s total installed capacity at the time. In Mozambique, a country recovering from civil war, the challenging Mocuba PV project created a demonstration effect and led to subsequent progress, including an EU-backed competitive selection program for additional capacity.
In Cameroon, a new solar plus storage leasing model expanded capacity by 30 MW and replaced the use of diesel generators. In Kenya, the Turkana wind project is the largest private investment in the country’s history. In Senegal, Uganda and Zambia, large PV projects were procured through competitive selection, and they have achieved record low prices. In Ghana, Burkina Faso, Togo, and Namibia large solar PV plants have also recently been commissioned.
All these cost-competitive, utility-scale projects add to the available capacity of these countries’ grids. They are powering cities and businesses and contributing to economic growth – without generating additional greenhouse gas emissions.
Small-scale power systems
It is true that the continent has yet to attract the “billions to trillions”, the flood of private financial investment that public financial investment hoped to unleash. We see that, at a rough installed cost of $1 per watt, the progress since 2013 across sub-Saharan Africa would amount to an investment of around $350 million a year, a figure that would be insignificant in any of the climate finance costing exercises.
But these exercises tend to forget the scale of power systems in sub-Saharan Africa. For illustration, in 2023, the power consumption in the region, excluding South Africa, was around 250 TWh (terrawatt hours) for a population of more than 1 billion people. That is roughly equal to the power consumption of Sweden and Norway, with a combined population of around 15 million people.
Electricity demand surges, expanding renewables and fossil fuels in 2024
The pursuit of progress requires thinking about contexts and scales. Small power systems cannot absorb enormous levels of investment overnight. It takes time to integrate hundreds of additional megawatts in capacity, and to pay back the high upfront investments that are needed.
This is a time to persevere – not to back off. This remarkable progress can continue only if trial and error and innovation continue. Local and international companies and governments must carry on working together to learn more and do better.
This comment piece is based on work with the Finance for Sustainable Development Program and a new SEI policy brief, “Insights for development interventions in the clean energy sector, with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa”.
The post Finance for renewable energy in sub-Saharan Africa is defying the odds appeared first on Climate Home News.
Finance for renewable energy in sub-Saharan Africa is defying the odds
The case shows that climate change is a fundamental human rights violation—and the victory of Bonaire, a Dutch territory, could open the door for similar lawsuits globally.
From our collaborating partner Living on Earth, public radio’s environmental news magazine, an interview by Paloma Beltran with Greenpeace Netherlands campaigner Eefje de Kroon.
A Tiny Caribbean Island Sued the Netherlands Over Climate Change, and Won
Climate Change
Greenpeace organisations to appeal USD $345 million court judgment in Energy Transfer’s intimidation lawsuit
SYDNEY, Saturday 28 February 2026 — Greenpeace International and Greenpeace organisations in the US announce they will seek a new trial and, if necessary, appeal the decision with the North Dakota Supreme Court following a North Dakota District Court judgment today awarding Energy Transfer (ET) USD $345 million.
ET’s SLAPP suit remains a blatant attempt to silence free speech, erase Indigenous leadership of the Standing Rock movement, and punish solidarity with peaceful resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline. Greenpeace International will also continue to seek damages for ET’s bullying lawsuits under EU anti-SLAPP legislation in the Netherlands.
Mads Christensen, Greenpeace International Executive Director said: “Energy Transfer’s attempts to silence us are failing. Greenpeace International will continue to resist intimidation tactics. We will not be silenced. We will only get louder, joining our voices to those of our allies all around the world against the corporate polluters and billionaire oligarchs who prioritise profits over people and the planet.
“With hard-won freedoms under threat and the climate crisis accelerating, the stakes of this legal fight couldn’t be higher. Through appeals in the US and Greenpeace International’s groundbreaking anti-SLAPP case in the Netherlands, we are exploring every option to hold Energy Transfer accountable for multiple abusive lawsuits and show all power-hungry bullies that their attacks will only result in a stronger people-powered movement.”
The Court’s final judgment today rejects some of the jury verdict delivered in March 2025, but still awards hundreds of millions of dollars to ET without a sound basis in law. The Greenpeace defendants will continue to press their arguments that the US Constitution does not allow liability here, that ET did not present evidence to support its claims, that the Court admitted inflammatory and irrelevant evidence at trial and excluded other evidence supporting the defense, and that the jury pool in Mandan could not be impartial.[1][2]
ET’s back-to-back lawsuits against Greenpeace International and the US organisations Greenpeace USA (Greenpeace Inc.) and Greenpeace Fund are clear-cut examples of SLAPPs — lawsuits attempting to bury nonprofits and activists in legal fees, push them towards bankruptcy and ultimately silence dissent.[3] Greenpeace International, which is based in the Netherlands, is pursuing justice in Europe, with a suit against ET under Dutch law and the European Union’s new anti-SLAPP directive, a landmark test of the new legislation which could help set a powerful precedent against corporate bullying.[4]
Kate Smolski, Program Director at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “This is part of a worrying trend globally: fossil fuel corporations are increasingly using litigation to attack and silence ordinary people and groups using the law to challenge their polluting operations — and we’re not immune to these tactics here in Australia.
“Rulings like this have a chilling effect on democracy and public interest litigation — we must unite against these silencing tactics as bad for Australians and bad for our democracy. Our movement is stronger than any corporate bully, and grows even stronger when under attack.”
Energy Transfer’s SLAPPs are part of a wave of abusive lawsuits filed by Big Oil companies like Shell, Total, and ENI against Greenpeace entities in recent years.[3] A couple of these cases have been successfully stopped in their tracks. This includes Greenpeace France successfully defeating TotalEnergies’ SLAPP on 28 March 2024, and Greenpeace UK and Greenpeace International forcing Shell to back down from its SLAPP on 10 December 2024.
-ENDS-
Images available in Greenpeace Media Library
Notes:
[1] The judgment entered by North Dakota District Court Judge Gion follows a jury verdict finding Greenpeace entities liable for more than US$660 million on March 19, 2025. Judge Gion subsequently threw out several items from the jury’s verdict, reducing the total damages to approximately US$345 million.
[2] Public statements from the independent Trial Monitoring Committee
[3] Energy Transfer’s first lawsuit was filed in federal court in 2017 under the RICO Act – the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a US federal statute designed to prosecute mob activity. The case was dismissed in 2019, with the judge stating the evidence fell “far short” of what was needed to establish a RICO enterprise. The federal court did not decide on Energy Transfer’s claims based on state law, so Energy Transfer promptly filed a new case in a North Dakota state court with these and other state law claims.
[4] Greenpeace International sent a Notice of Liability to Energy Transfer on 23 July 2024, informing the pipeline giant of Greenpeace International’s intention to bring an anti-SLAPP lawsuit against the company in a Dutch Court. After Energy Transfer declined to accept liability on multiple occasions (September 2024, December 2024), Greenpeace International initiated the first test of the European Union’s anti-SLAPP Directive on 11 February 2025 by filing a lawsuit in Dutch court against Energy Transfer. The case was officially registered in the docket of the Court of Amsterdam on 2 July, 2025. Greenpeace International seeks to recover all damages and costs it has suffered as a result of Energy Transfers’s back-to-back, abusive lawsuits demanding hundreds of millions of dollars from Greenpeace International and the Greenpeace organisations in the US. The next hearing in the Court of Amsterdam is scheduled for 16 April, 2026.
Media contact:
Kate O’Callaghan on 0406 231 892 or kate.ocallaghan@greenpeace.org
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Greenpeace organisations to appeal USD $345 million court judgment in Energy Transfer’s intimidation lawsuit
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