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A Farewell to Sun-Connect (Advance Notice)

25/03/2026
Sun-Connect News
Article

After 15 years, we will be discontinuing our service for the off-grid sector. Since 2010, we have been providing up-to-date information, in-depth analysis, and practical insights for experts and practitioners. What began as a small news platform has grown over the years into one of the leading information sources for decentralized energy.

The Precision Transition: Designing Africa’s power systems for reality, not abstraction

24/03/2026
Louis Strydom
Article

Last year, I argued in my piece “Lean Carbon, Just Power”, that a limited and temporary increase in African carbon emissions is justified to meet the continent’s urgent electrification needs.

How solar is powering maternal care and immunisation in rural Uganda

18/03/2026
John Musenze
Article

In rural Uganda a lack of reliable power means mothers are often forced to give birth in the dark. Now a new solarisation project is bringing light and reliable electricity to health centres across the country.

Africa’s solar power revolution driven by China’s investment

10/03/2026
David Ehl | Privilege Musvanhiri
Article

Chinese solar equipment has been flooding African markets, partly as a ripple effect of the US-China trade war. It’s one of several factors helping the continent gain traction with electrification.

The Surprising Link Between Off-Grid Solar Energy and Global Lead Poisoning

28/02/2026
Rachel Bonnifield and Caroline Mallory
Article

Solar energy is a central plank of the green energy revolution, with widespread adoption in high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) alike. In LMICs, these technologies—and off-grid solar systems, in particular—are favored by individuals and development partners for their apparent win-win-win.

The False Choice in African Energy Access: Why the Sector Must Balance the Needs of Households and Businesses — And How it Can Electrify Both

24/02/2026
Alba Topulli and Todd Moss
Article

Energy is essential to Africa’s development, but progress has stalled over a false choice: Should the continent prioritize the basic solar home systems that move households up the energy ladder — or should it invest in making electricity cheaper and more reliable for businesses to power job creation and economic growth?

‘Clean Energy for People and Planet’ must start with African realities

18/02/2026
Ekeminiabasi Eyita-Okon
Article

For Africa, the clean energy agenda cannot be framed as a matter of global urgency translated into continental compliance. It must be ‘glocalised’, by adapting to local political economies, governance realities, historical trajectories of (under) development, and importantly, a consideration of indigenous energy systems.

Connecting home solar and electric vehicle batteries to the grid could boost South Africa’s clean energy and strengthen the electricity system

13/02/2026
David Richard Walwyn, University of Pretoria
Article

South Africa has committed to reaching phasing out human-caused carbon pollution by 2050. To get there, it needs to push as much renewable energy as possible into the national grid.

Productive Use Has Challenges: What’s Holding the Sector Back — And How Companies and Investors Should Respond

09/02/2026
Daniel Waldron, Duda Slawek, Chris Emmott and Kristi Chon
Article

Across Africa, renewable energy is powering more homes than ever, but it hasn’t yet powered prosperity. For smallholder farmers, productive-use technologies such as solar irrigation, cold storage and agro-processing can have a transformative impact.

Embrace Early Field Testing – Or Lose the Clean Tech Race

03/02/2026
Moses M. Nyakoyo
Article

In the fast-evolving world of clean technology, innovation isn’t just about cutting-edge designs or lab-perfected prototypes. It’s about creating products that truly work in the real world, and that starts with involving end users from the get-go.