Africa and Middle East solar project pipeline reaches 12 GW, NPD Solarbuzz

The PV market in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region is set for strong growth, with many multi-megawatt ground mount projects in the planning or pre-planning phases, according to the NPD Solarbuzz Middle East and Africa Deal Tracker - Solar Project Database. The database, which covers completed and in-progress solar projects in 29 African countries and seven Middle Eastern countries, reveals that PV projects in Africa have a total potential capacity of more than 11 GW, while projects in the Middle East have a total potential capacity of at least 1.3 GW.


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Until now, PV market growth in the MEA region has been mainly driven by a small number of economically prosperous countries, in particular South Africa and Israel, said Susanne von Aichberger, analyst at NPD Solarbuzz. »These two countries, and Saudi Arabia, are expected to offer stable demand levels within the MEA region over the next few years. The capacity share of the remaining MEA region is projected to increase; however, the increase depends on relatively few, but very large, projects. More than 99% of the potential PV capacity listed in the MEA Deal Tracker is from ground-mounted projects, and average sizes of these projects in Africa tend to be larger than in most established PV markets.

According to von Aichberger, the large size of these projects tends to raise their attractiveness due to economies of scale, but this also increases risk. While the pipeline is extensive, and spread all over the continent, most of Africa’s existing PV capacity is located in South Africa. Completed South African projects comprise nearly 700 MW in the Deal Tracker, while identified installations in the rest of Africa amount to one tenth of this capacity. Just 7% of identified African project capacity has been completed, according to the report.