This report presents the opportunity landscape for Zero-Emission Generators (ZE-Gen) across Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) in Sub-Saharan Africa. In collaboration with Open Capital Advisors, ZE-Gen conducted a market overview study to identify key insights on the fossil fuel genset and solar genset markets, consumer needs, regulatory context, financing gaps, and other market enablers for achieving a clean and sustainable energy transition in the region.
The report covers the following countries: Angola, Cote d’Ivoire, DRC, Ethiopia, Ghana, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia.
To highlight some of the key findings:
Across these 10 countries, there are consistent market characteristics that should be considered:
- Lack of affordability: relatively low GDP per capita and unaffordability is a main barrier across all use cases
- Low grid reliance: even the relatively more reliable grid still incurs up to four hours of outages a month
- Large market of FFGs: Given low grid reliability, there is a sizeable market of FFGs
- Drivers for switching: the main factor that drives consumers to consider switching away from FFGs is cost, which is primarily the ongoing costs of operating the FFG, i.e. fuel costs
In addition, there are some cross-cutting interventions that should be considered:
- Targeted market research: All countries will need deeper research to understand the FFG landscape including demand, use cases, and sizes
- Financial support needed for distributors: Solar distributors across the countries analysed require financial support to increase their inventory capacity. The ZE-Gen-supported Green Genset Facility (GGF) provides a useful reference model.
- Subsidies: The affordability of solar energy is a challenge in all the countries analysed, therefore requiring either supply- or demand-side subsidies to boost the uptake of solar generators
Stay up to date with the latest from ZE-Gen. Sign up to our newsletter.