By Eamonn Ryan: from Solar & Storage Live Africa 2026, Gauteng
The following discussion is drawn from a panel at Solar & Storage Live Africa, held in Gauteng in March 2026, where leading voices in the energy sector gathered to explore a central question facing South Africa’s transition: how to scale solar in a way that is not only fast, but financially credible, grid-compatible, and capable of supporting long-term economic growth.
By the end of the discussion, a clear consensus had emerged. © RACA Journal
Under the theme ‘The Utility Shift: Building Bankable, Scalable Solar for South Africa’s Grid’, the panel brought together a cross-section of developers, traders, engineers and energy strategists. Moderated by Rudy Samuel of RS Services, the discussion featured Frank Spencer (SBG Earth), Daniel Maduagwa (3KM Energy Systems), Etienne Rubbers (Renew), and Chikoma Kazunga (Africa GreenCo).
This is part three of a three-part series.
That question becomes even more relevant when considering how electricity markets themselves are evolving. In South Africa, the sector has already moved through several phases – from state-led procurement programmes to long-term bilateral contracts between large generators and industrial buyers, and more recently toward shorter-term trading arrangements and emerging hybrid supply models.
The next phase, as some panellists suggested, may involve the gradual emergence of a more liquid wholesale electricity market, where generation is increasingly sold into open trading platforms rather than locked into long-term off-take agreements. In theory, this would allow for more flexible, responsive pricing and potentially open the door to merchant-style projects developed without secured buyers.
However, such a shift depends entirely on liquidity, regulatory certainty and market confidence – conditions that are still developing.
At the same time, the discussion returned repeatedly to a more difficult question: who benefits from this transition? While large-scale industrial users are increasingly able to access competitively priced renewable energy through private deals and trading structures, there remains a risk that lower-income communities and rural regions are left behind.
Several panellists highlighted the tension between capital efficiency and energy equity. Investment naturally flows toward predictable returns, but the areas with the greatest need are often those least able to guarantee them. Addressing this imbalance will require deliberate intervention, whether through targeted subsidies, mini-grid programmes or new tariff structures that recognise the realities of distributed energy delivery.
This is not just a technical or financial issue, but a structural one. Electricity, as was pointed out during the discussion, is never truly ‘free’ simply because the sun is. Even in remote communities, the cost of generation, storage and distribution must be met somewhere within the system. The question is not whether that cost exists, but how it is shared between governments, investors and end users in a way that remains sustainable.
Regional integration added another layer to the conversation. Through mechanisms such as the Southern African Power Pool, cross-border electricity trade is already possible and does occur. Yet in practice, it remains constrained by limited interconnector capacity between countries. While demand exists in markets such as Zambia and the DRC, and surplus generation is available elsewhere in the region, physical transmission constraints mean that only a fraction of this potential trade can actually take place.
Expanding these interconnections would not only improve energy security across the region but also unlock more efficient use of generation assets. In many ways, the issue is no longer about whether regional trade should happen, but how quickly governments and utilities can build the infrastructure required to support it.
By the end of the discussion, a clear consensus had emerged. The future of solar in Africa will not be determined solely by how many projects are built, but by how effectively those projects are embedded within a functioning system – one that connects infrastructure, markets, finance and policy in a coherent and scalable way.
The opportunity is significant. But so too is the complexity of the system now required to realise it.
© RACA Journal
