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.
When viewed regionally, South Africa also begins to look like something of an outlier. © 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 two of a three-part series.
Financing remains the constant thread running through every part of the discussion. Across both South Africa and other African markets, the ability to secure long-term revenue certainty continues to determine whether projects move from concept to construction. Robust power purchase agreements remain essential, but in many regions they are still not sufficient on their own to unlock investment at scale.
In West Africa especially, the challenges are compounded by currency risk, regulatory inconsistency and high borrowing costs. Development finance institutions were widely seen as playing a growing role in bridging this gap, helping to de-risk projects that would otherwise struggle to reach financial close.
Alongside these structural issues sits another, increasingly important dynamic: the shape of solar generation itself. The familiar pattern of midday overproduction and evening shortages is becoming more pronounced, raising difficult questions about long-term pricing stability. As panellists noted, solar without flexibility risks exposing investors to falling midday prices and rising volatility.
This is where storage is beginning to shift from optional enhancement to core infrastructure. Battery systems are increasingly viewed not as add-ons to solar projects, but as essential components that allow energy to be shifted, stabilised and monetised more effectively. Without that flexibility, several speakers suggested, the economics of large-scale solar become far harder to sustain.
Despite these constraints, there was broad agreement that technology itself is no longer the main barrier. Inverters are more capable, system design more modular and project execution more standardised than ever before. The challenge has moved elsewhere – to grid readiness, regulatory alignment and the ability of markets to evolve quickly enough to match technological progress.
When viewed regionally, South Africa also begins to look like something of an outlier. While it has demonstrated relatively advanced capability in integrating utility-scale renewables, many neighbouring markets are still grappling with far more fundamental issues around market design and investment frameworks. In those contexts, the structure of the electricity market itself may matter more than generation capacity in determining how quickly the energy transition can proceed.
As the discussion deepened, the focus gradually shifted away from infrastructure constraints and toward a more fundamental question: whether the industry is still thinking too narrowly about what ‘scaling solar’ actually means.
One of the strongest points raised was the industry’s continued obsession with megawatts. While utility-scale capacity understandably dominates headlines and investment conversations, several panellists argued that this framing is increasingly incomplete. Across Africa, a significant portion of real energy access is already being delivered through behind-the-meter and off-grid systems. In many cases, these systems are scaling faster than grid-connected projects, yet remain under-represented in formal energy planning and policy design.
This has important implications. If energy access is already being driven by distributed systems, then scalability cannot be understood purely in terms of centralised generation. Instead, it depends on whether market structures are capable of integrating a far more decentralised reality.
© RACA Journal
