First sight on an African continent brings everybody to a question, why African countries are not fully dependent on solar energy. Answer is not simple as it could seem.

Implementation of solar energy is economics of every country lays in several layers and technological layer is the simplest one. Importing solar panels, invertors, cables and mounting systems is simple, fast and doesn’t require even big amounts of finance. Every company can get a license (in those countries where it’s required by legislation) and import solar-related technologies from other countries without any problems (for example in Kenya all import related to photovoltaics is tax-free), but here is the the point, where the first problem-point is buried: investments.

In case a household (doesn’t matter, on which part of the world) plans to invest in a solar-plant on the roof the privately-owned house just to reduce energy bills, it doesn’t require investor. Even small-size factories, which consume more energy (like 100kW consumption during the day) can finance the purchase and mounting of solar-plant using own money or small bank loans. We have to keep in mind that in case of mass solar-plant installations a market of every country requires support of state. In that case we should keep in mind that governments of different countries have different aims when encouraging households to install panel on their roofs.

Example of governmental subsidies for photovoltaics in Germany and Czechia

For example, German government made a program, which gives subsidies using KfW-bank (low-interest loans and grants for residential solar panel installations. KfW-bank’s website claims that households can receive a subsidy up to 20% of the purchase and installation costs. In Czech republic the government started the (“New green light for savings” program: Nová Zelená úsporám), according to which homeowners can receive back up to 50% of funds, invested in photovoltaics on ther roofs. RegnerFu Capital Group had a wide experience in realisation of more than 4000 solar installations across the whole Czech republic, Slovakia and Germany.

Renewable subsidies in African countries

While european governments are supporting households and big industrial photovoltaics, african governments are trying to support big scale solar-power-plants for factories. For example, in South Africa the primary electricity supplier, Eskom is offering subsidies for solar water heaters, in Nigeria the Rural Electrificatin Agency (REA) is developing and implementing programs aimed at increasing solar power adoption in off-grid areas (grants and subsities for mini-grid and solar home system installations). In Kenya there are two organizations (Rural Electrification Authority – REA, and Kenya Renewable Energy Association – KEREA), which promote the use of renewable energy and offers various incentives, including subsidies and tax exemptions for solar products import from abroad.

The main part of iniciatives of the governments in African coutries are aimed to suppor of industrial projects, but neglect households. The whole system of support of solar plants installations is focused for big consumers of solar power. The explanation is very simple: encouraging and suppor of use of solar energy requires governmental help, but the lack of finance brings troubles is mass installation. And the reason is simple: average african household consumes less energy than the average household in Europe or North America. As a result, a demand of solar-plants installations among home-owners is less in African countries. In other words, the average power-consumer in Ghana uses less  energy not because he doesn’t need it, but because it has no change to consume a lot energy because he just doesn’t own lot of home elctric appliances.

Is real demand so high?

While analyzing the total consumption of electricity you come to a conslusion, that investing in solar panels is very expensive not because of lack of electrical and power infrastructure, but just because the way the avergae household consumes electricity makes an investment in solar plants pointless and highly expensive regarding the amount of electricity they consume and this this the place, where we can find an answer for the question, why Africa is not covered with solar panels and why solar power consumption in African countries is so low.

So, yes, african countries can potentially produce high volumes of solar energy, but they struggle with the volume of consumption and infrastructure of power network. Other words, the support (subsidies) of governments must be on a such high level, that will allow households to invest in photovoltaic installation. Financially it has no sense for both sides. House owner will not invest let’s say 10.000 US dollars in power plant on his field or even roof of his house, just to save 50$ on electricity bill every month. On the other side, government will have to find funds to subsidy the solar plant installation in order to .. make some far rural to make electricity independent?

The idea of covering the whole african contitent with solar panels has very low chances to be built because there is not such a demand for electricity. Density of popularion in most of african countries are on a propriate for solar plant installation only in big cities. The rest of the countries are populated on a very low density level. Industrial factories and plants can reduce their electricity consumption just using their roofs, households are left out of the game because of lack of financial effectivity of investing in solar energy.