Q2 – 2025 Energy Infrastructure Moves in Africa
Still a lot to be hopeful about...
Last week, our quarterly infrastructure update did not include energy. This is the first installment in a quarterly series tracking progress in energy infrastructure across Africa. While roads, ports, and digital connectivity matter, power is foundational—the engine that drives productivity, enables industrialization, and expands economic opportunity. Without reliable and affordable electricity, factories sit idle, hospitals run on generators, and students study in darkness. Energy access is not just a development target; it is the precondition for Africa’s structural transformation. It bears repeating that this series is not meant to be exhaustive, but as a recognition of African agency and effort in building the power systems that will shape the continent’s economic future.
1. Scalar International and Mergence Investment Managers Ltd. plan to raise as much as $150 million in a private equity fund to boost energy efficiency and install renewable-energy systems in 30,000 buildings in Africa. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-14/africa-energy-a-150-million-pe-fund-to-green-30-000-buildings
Morocco, UAE Sign $14 Billion Megadeal: Key Details on the Largest Private Investment in Morocco’s History
The agreement, signed on May 20, outlines major infrastructure projects including a 1,400-km high-voltage transmission line, four desalination plants and a gas-fired power plant.The transmission line will connect Daklha – in southern Morocco – to Casablanca, transmitting 3,000 MW of energy generated from 1,200 MW of new solar and wind capacity in the country’s southern provinces.
The four desalination plants …will collectively produce 900 million m3 of water annually. These facilities will run entirely on renewable energy.
https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2025/05/201855/morocco-uae-sign-14-billion-megadeal-key-details-on-the-largest-private-investment-in-moroccos-history
3. Zimbabwe aims to raise over $9 billion to expand energy access by more than doubling its power generation capacity through hydro, wind, solar, and biomass sources. This initiative is part of the World Bank and African Development Bank’s Mission 300 program, which seeks to provide electricity to 300 million people in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030.
4. “The Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco) has doubled the amount of electricity evacuated from Ethiopia to Tanzania to 100 megawatts...This initiative leverages the existing Eastern Africa power infrastructure—including Kenya’s Ethiopia–Kenya HVDC line and the newly energized 400 kV Kenya–Tanzania interconnector—to support a broader regional energy market. It’s the first “wheeling” transaction within the Eastern Africa Power Pool, allowing power from Ethiopia to flow through Kenya to Tanzania.
5. And this is raising hopes for the realization of Africa Single Electricity Markert (AfSEM). Simbini Tichakunda, principal programme officer at the AUDA-NEPAD was hopeful –“The dream of AfSEM is coming to life. The 400 KV seamless power integration between Kenya and Tanzania, linking the grids of Kenya and Tanzania and synchronising them with those of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is a major step forward”, Tichankunda noted.
6. South Africa Secures $1.5 billion World Bank Loan to Bolster Energy Reform and Infrastructure Efficiency.
South Africa has obtained The financing targets three strategic pillars: improving energy security, enhancing freight transport efficiency, and supporting the low-carbon transition.
https://www.semafor.com/article/06/25/2025/south-africa-secures-15b-infrastructure-loan
7. Zambia's opens its biggest grid-connected solar power plant, built by PowerChina, which will supply electricity to copper miner First Quantum.
The 100 megawatt Chisamba project is expected to reduce reliance on electricity imports from neighbors South Africa and Mozambique.
8. UNECA Makes a Case for Nuclear Energy in Africa.
Claver Gatete, UNECA’s Executive Secretary noted that even though “Africa accounts for 17 percent of the world’s population and generates less than 3 percent of global electricity [with a] staggering 600 million people across Africa remain without access to electricity.”
“He said even as Africa exports uranium and other critical minerals to power many parts of the world and from now on it should develop nuclear energy to spur its industrialisation, improve healthcare services and drive economic transformation.” – Amen to that!
https://apanews.net/uneca-sets-case-for-africa-nuclear-energy-revolution/
9. Octopus Energy Generation launches a $250m African clean energy fund “The fund will invest into clean energy solutions – including rooftop solar, battery storage, electric vehicle charging infrastructure and grid upgrades- across sub-Saharan Africa to catalyse on what Octopus says is the continent’s huge clean energy potential and bring affordable, green energy to more people globally.”
https://impact-investor.com/octopus-energy-generation-launches-250m-african-clean-energy-fund/