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FILE – A shepherd watches livestock near Khi Solar One, a solar thermal plant that converts the sun’s light energy into electricity, outside Upington, South Africa, in the Northern Cape province, Aug. 29, 2025.<\/p>\n
Themba Hadebe\/AP Photo\/Themba Hadebe<\/p>\n
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) \u2014 Africa\u2019s biggest clean energy challenge is shifting from building projects to building the institutions, markets and regulatory systems needed to deliver them at scale, experts say.<\/p>\n
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That challenge is emerging even as clean energy reaches a historic milestone globally. Renewables generated 34% of the world\u2019s electricity in 2025, overtaking coal\u2019s 33% share. Together with nuclear power, renewables are expected to provide half of global electricity by 2030.<\/p>\n
As industrialization, artificial intelligence and electrification push demand higher, experts say the bottleneck in transitioning to cleaner energy has shifted from technology to the systems supporting it, including funding. Overcoming such obstacles is vital for securing access to power for the 600 million people in Africa who are yet to be connected.<\/p>\n
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\u201cClean energy is now cheaper than fossil fuels in virtually every part of the world,\u201d former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the U.N. Secretary-General\u2019s Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions, said in late June while announcing a new $285 million Bloomberg Philanthropies initiative to strengthen clean energy industries in emerging and developing economies.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut fixable obstacles are still slowing down deployment, and with energy demand rising at an unprecedented speed, we can\u2019t allow those obstacles to continue standing in the way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Rather than financing solar farms or wind projects directly, the initiative will invest in strengthening market design, regulatory capacity, technical expertise and industry institutions, areas increasingly viewed as essential for attracting private investment and accelerating use of renewable energy.<\/p>\n
It reflects a growing consensus that Africa\u2019s energy transition is constrained less by a lack of renewable resources or viable technologies than by the institutional capacity needed to turn those advantages into financially viable projects and electricity on the grid.<\/p>\n
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Many projects remain delayed by weak market design, limited grid planning, slow permitting processes and fragmented regulatory systems.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat has been missing is not the potential, but the institutional infrastructure and capabilities to unlock it,\u201d said Saliem Fakir, executive director of the African Climate Foundation. \u201cPhilanthropy that targets those gaps directly is the kind of intervention that can shift the trajectory of a continent\u2019s energy system.\u201d<\/p>\n
Across Africa, renewable energy costs have fallen sharply while investment appetite continues to grow. However, investors say policy uncertainty, slow permitting processes and limited regulatory capacity are hindering projects.<\/p>\n
Wangari Muchiri, founder and chief executive of RE.Think Energy, said the commitment signals that \u201cthe next phase of the energy transition is not about proving clean energy works, it\u2019s about removing the barriers preventing it from scaling fast enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bloomberg initiative is looking beyond ambitious renewable energy targets to focus on helping projects attract long-term investments and connect to national grids.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe next chapter of Africa’s renewable energy story will not be only by the projects it builds, but the institutions that make these projects possible,\u201d Muchiri said.<\/p>\n
The Associated Press\u2019 climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FILE – A shepherd watches livestock near Khi Solar One, a solar thermal plant that converts the sun’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[63,160070,4356,9475,83442,9473,83443,9474,74848,159923],"class_list":["post-328090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-africa","tag-africa","tag-michael-bloomberg","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","tag-product-30597-ap-business-news-f-wire","tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","tag-product-31995-ap-online-general-financial-business-news","tag-product-32503-ap-online-africa-news","tag-product-46986-ap-online-top-stories","tag-renewable-energy-finance-africa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116907084819133859","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}