Germany continued its strong solar momentum in 2025, installing 16.2 GW of new solar PV capacity, according to an analysis by Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, based on data from the energy-charts.info platform. This expansion pushed the country’s cumulative installed solar capacity to 116.8 GW by the end of the year—comfortably surpassing the federal government’s 108 GW target for 2025.

Over the past few years, the rapid decline in the cost of solar panels and battery storage has begun to fundamentally reshape how electricity is produced and consumed in South Africa and across large parts of Africa. Affordable systems—largely manufactured in China—have enabled households and businesses to generate their own power, reducing dependence on aging coal-fired plants and often unreliable national grids.