Africa’s renewable energy landscape is changing rapidly. Last month, the Scaling Up Renewable Energy in Africa campaign, led by African governments in partnership with the European Union, secured €15.5 billion in funding to accelerate clean energy deployment, targeting around 27 gigawatts of new generation capacity and expanding electricity access to millions of households. The UAE has similarly reaffirmed its support for Africa’s clean energy transition through the Africa Partnership for Acceleration of Renewable Energy (APRA), emphasizing investment in new generation as well as infrastructure development.
However, recent developments highlight structural constraints. This means that renewable energy generation is growing faster than the size of the grid needed to absorb it. In North Africa, demand is growing rapidly in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia due to urbanization, desalination needs and rapidly increasing heat-related consumption, with regional electricity demand expected to increase by 50% by 2035, increasing pressure on transmission and distribution systems.
In West Africa, the expansion of commercial renewable energy is increasing pressure on evacuation networks. In Senegal, the 158 MW Taiba N’Diaye wind farm, supported by a planned 40 MW / 175 MWh storage facility, is the first renewable energy power plant of its kind in the country, highlighting the need to combine power generation with grid balancing infrastructure. In Nigeria, repeated nationwide power grid collapses in 2024 exposed the limitations of aging transmission corridors, prompting developers and policymakers to increase their focus on storage-assisted solar and hybrid systems to strengthen system resilience.
East Africa faces similar bottlenecks. Kenya’s Lake Turkana Wind Farm Project, Africa’s largest wind farm, has highlighted vulnerabilities in key power transmission corridors. The 428 km Loiyangalani-Suswa 400 kV transmission line, which evacuates LTWP output, suffered a tower collapse near Longonot, temporarily reducing supply to the national grid. Although power lines have since been restored, the incident highlighted the importance of resilient, well-maintained power transmission equipment to absorb large amounts of fluctuating power. Meanwhile, Ethiopia is strengthening its power under the East African Power Pool, including upgrading the area around the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam corridor, to improve stability and prepare for increased inflows of renewable energy.
Southern Africa is where some of the continent’s most advanced storage solutions are taking shape. In South Africa’s Northern Cape, the 153 MW/612 MWh Red Sands battery energy storage project, one of Africa’s largest standalone systems, was commercially completed in 2025. This installation will help manage fluctuations from large solar clusters and reduce pressure on constrained power lines. Taken together, these developments show a clear pattern. While renewable power generation is rapidly expanding, the infrastructure needed to stabilize and distribute that power remains uneven across the continent.
Against this backdrop, the Africa Investment in Energy (IAE) 2026 Forum in Paris will bring together policy makers, utilities, grid operators, energy storage developers and financiers to host a panel entitled ‘Grid Stabilization to Scale Up Renewables’ to assess what Africa’s electricity systems need to do to absorb the next wave of growth in renewable energy. The discussion will address issues such as grid expansion, the introduction of large-scale energy storage, the integration of regional power pools, and the bankability challenges associated with focused investments in the grid.
For governments and investors, the deadline is tightening. Projects announced under the EU’s Scaling Renewables campaign, APRA commitments and national transition strategies will only have their intended impact if parallel investments support grid stability, storage capacity and operational modernization. The IAE 2026 Panel provides a platform to align technical capabilities, policy priorities and investment requirements. This is a necessary step if Africa’s next generation of renewable projects are to provide reliable, large-scale electricity to homes, industry and regional markets.
IAE 2026 is a special forum aimed at connecting African energy markets with global investors and will serve as a key platform for deal-making in the lead-up to Africa Energy Week. Scheduled for April 22-23, 2026 in Paris, the event will offer participants two days of in-depth interaction with industry experts, project developers, investors and policy makers. For more information, please visit www.invest-africa-energy.com. To become a sponsor or register as a representative, please contact sales@energycapitalpower.com.
