The South African Photovoltaic Industry Association (SAPVIA) expects the country’sfuture solar PV capacity to reach 3GW annually, as installations gradually rebound.
This is according to SAPVIA CEO Dr Rethabile Melamu, speaking during a virtual media briefing hosted by the renewable industry body.
South Africa witnessed a slowdown of new solar capacity installations in 2024, following the 2023 surge spurred by the load-shedding crisis.
However, according to Melamu, this year’s install capacity and project deployments signal recovery.
She said that around 2.4GW of solar capacity was installed in 2023, which declined to just over 1GW in 2024. This year, install capacity surpassed 1GW, she said
“We did see a slowdown…but deployment has taken off again. As an industry association, we follow the registration data at NERSA [National Energy Regulator of South Africa], and it shows that about 4GW of new PV projects were registered in 2025. These projects are primarily private off-take market.”
She added that bid window six and seven projects and additional window allocations are still in the pipeline. “We’re also seeing gradual growth in residential areas…and big development around distributed generation.”
Melamu also highlighted that constraints do exist, stating: “There are grid constraints for deployment. We’re looking forward to the implementation of the wholesale market in the new year, which we believe will catalyse the deployment of solar PV in the country.”
On a global front, 380GW of new solar capacity was installed in the first six months of 2025, which was 64% higher than during the same period in 2024, when 232GW were installed.
South Africa’s Integrated Resource Plan highlights that by 2030, the electricity generation mix is to comprise 8.2GW (10%) of solar PV energy.
Data from national regulator NERSA shows total private sector renewable energy projects in SA reached 16.8GW in October.
The total number of registered facilities increased by 82 projects from 2 176 to 2 258 facilities, with registered capacity of solar PV projects increasing from 1GW to 1.1GW.
In addition, the share of solar PV projects of total registered capacity increased by 1.5% to 64.8%. The registered capacity of projects 10MW and larger likely designed for wheeling increased to 1.5GW.
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