African leaders and donors vowed Tuesday to spread electricity to 300 million more people in just five years, leaning on huge improvements in off-grid solar technology to meet the target.
Energy industry leaders and heads of state have been gathering in Tanzania's commercial capital Dar es Salaam since Monday for the African Energy Summit, co-organised by the World Bank and the African Development Bank.
The World Bank pledged "$30-40 billion" and the ADB a further "$18 billion" to "Mission 300", which aims to provide electricity to an additional 300 million people in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030.
Four-fifths of those without electricity worldwide live in sub-Saharan Africa -- an estimated 570 million out of a total of 1.2 billion people in 2022, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Off-grid solar power generation is seen as crucial to solving the problem, including everything from simple photovoltaic lamps to local mini-grids capable of supplying a whole village.
"The improvements in the technology are allowing you to power more," said Patrick Tonui, director of regional policy and strategy at Gogla, which represents off-grid solar providers.
"Fifteen or 20 years ago, you were primarily talking about powering lights and maybe charging a phone. Now, you can actually run a 40-inch TV, you can run fridges, all at really affordable prices," he told AFP.
Solar panels have become more efficient even as they have become less expensive.
Off-grid solar is particularly useful for rural areas, given the expense of extending national electricity networks across some of Africa's vast territories.
Just 21 percent of the population in DR Congo -- a massive, poor, and heavily forested country in central Africa -- has electricity, according to the World Bank.
Even in Kenya, with one of the continent's better national grids, it reaches only 40 percent of the country's area, with large parts of the vast semi-arid north largely left out.
Up to a quarter of Kenyans get their electricity from off-grid systems, said Tonui.
"From a financial point of view, from a feasibility point of view, as well as even just a time point of view, it's unrealistic to think you can bring the grid everywhere," said Tonui.
Even where national grids are present, they often fail.
Nigeria's grid collapsed at least 12 times last year, according to industry publication Energy Watch.
South Africa has imposed controlled blackouts of up to 12 hours a day in recent years to safeguard its grid.
The problem has only grown more acute, with an IEA report last year finding that the number without electricity had actually increased by four million from 2010 to 2022, thanks to a huge population increase and the economic damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
"The pace of electricity, energy access did not keep up," said Tonui.