Leading off-grid company to locally manufacture solar panels

October 22, 2025

Dear subscriber,

There’s renewed optimism around local solar manufacturing as off-grid energy companies join the race. Innovation, long the driver of Africa’s renewables story, is evolving fast. Also, ports are being reimagined as future green energy hubs.

– Sammy Jamar, Editor

Leading off-grid power company Sun King has signed a non-binding agreement with Nigeria’s Rural Electrification Agency to assemble solar kits locally and boost renewable energy access. The partnership supports the “Nigeria First” localisation policy and could reduce import dependence by as much as $150 million over the next five years.

  • Sun King sells over 330,000 solar kits each month across Africa, with Nigeria now ranking among its largest markets, recording sales of around 75,000 units per month.

  • The company has also been expanding its financing base, raising its first local-currency debt facility worth $80 million in Nigeria and securing a $156 million securitisation deal for its Kenyan operations.

  • Our take: Domestic assembly could cut logistics and import costs, making solar systems cheaper in the long term… Read more (2 min)

Pan-African energy developer Sustainable Power Solutions (SPS) has launched a buyout model that enables South African businesses to convert existing solar and battery assets into immediate capital. SPS purchases the systems, reimburses up to 100% of the original investment, and signs a 10–20-year fixed-tariff agreement, giving firms fresh capital to invest.

  • Traditionally, companies either buy and own solar & battery systems, locking up capital, or sign long-term agreements where a developer owns the system and charges for power.

  • The buyout model releases capital can be redirected to support core business operations across industries.

  • Our take: Valuation of assets will be the main risk for investors and asset owners and needs a fair methodology… Read more (2 min)

Africa’s ports could anchor a new era of clean-fuel trade, writes Dr Francis Oremo, environmental governance specialist. He argues that Kenya, with its green grid and hydrogen roadmap, can transform its ports into e-fuel production hubs. He writes this would attract investment and embed Africa in the world’s decarbonised trade system.

  • “The global shipping industry moves almost 90 per cent of global trade and emits about three per cent of total greenhouse gases, more than most countries. Cutting these emissions is no longer a choice,” he says.

  • Dr Oremo currently serves as Head of Programme at the Institute for Law and Environmental Governance and lectures at the University of Nairobi.

  • Read the full article here… Read more (2 min)

The Africa Minigrids Program and partners convene a workshop to advance the renewable energy roadmap in Somalia

Events

📆 Be at the Power Energy Ghana Expo 2025 (Oct 30)

📆 Register in the C&I Energy + Storage Summit Johannesburg (Nov 4)

📆 Attend the Youth in Energy Transition event (Nov 7)

📆 Participate in Africa Investment Exchange: Power & Renewables (Nov 17)

Jobs

👷‍♀️ Spearhead human resource activities at Solar Panda (Senegal)

👷🏻‍♂️ Join M-KOPA as an Inventory Lead (Kenya)

🥼 Apply for Sun King’s Health Safety & Wellbeing Manager role (Nigeria)

Various 

💡 Stardust Solar enters Africa via Zambia franchise

☀️ Nigerian banks leverage solar to curb growing energy costs

💵 South Africa targets $127bn investment for coal phase-out

🔋 AFD and GEAPP back pilot battery storage project in Togo

Seen on LinkedIn 

Mbuguah Charles, Strategic Business Unit Head at Stima Sacco Society Ltd, says, "Carbon finance can create revenue for African SMEs and communities that cut emissions — from renewable energy projects to sustainable agriculture — turning climate action into predictable cash flows.”