NAIROBI, Kenya — The biggest hurdle facing clean energy expansion across Africa is no longer about finding the right technology or resources — it’s about building the institutions, markets, and regulatory systems needed to bring those projects to life at a meaningful scale, according to experts.
This challenge is taking shape at a moment when renewable energy has reached a landmark achievement worldwide. In 2025, renewables accounted for 34% of global electricity generation, edging past coal’s 33% share. When combined with nuclear power, renewables are projected to supply half of all electricity worldwide by 2030.
As demand for electricity climbs due to industrialization, artificial intelligence, and electrification, experts say the main bottleneck in the clean energy transition has moved away from technology and toward the systems — including financing — that support it. Solving these problems is critical for the roughly 600 million people across Africa who still lack access to electricity.
“Clean energy is now cheaper than fossil fuels in virtually every part of the world,” said former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who serves as the U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions. He made the remarks in late June while unveiling a new $285 million Bloomberg Philanthropies effort aimed at strengthening clean energy industries in emerging and developing economies.
“But fixable obstacles are still slowing down deployment, and with energy demand rising at an unprecedented speed, we can’t allow those obstacles to continue standing in the way,” he added.
Rather than putting money directly into solar farms or wind energy projects, the initiative will channel funds into improving market design, building regulatory capacity, developing technical expertise, and strengthening industry institutions. These areas are increasingly seen as the key to drawing in private investment and speeding up the adoption of renewable energy.
The effort reflects a growing belief that Africa’s energy transition is held back less by a shortage of renewable resources or workable technologies, and more by the institutional capacity required to turn those advantages into financially sound projects that actually deliver power to the grid.
Many projects across the continent face delays stemming from poorly designed markets, limited grid planning, sluggish permitting, and fragmented regulatory systems.
“What has been missing is not the potential, but the institutional infrastructure and capabilities to unlock it,” said Saliem Fakir, executive director of the African Climate Foundation. “Philanthropy that targets those gaps directly is the kind of intervention that can shift the trajectory of a continent’s energy system.”
Across Africa, the cost of renewable energy has dropped significantly while investor interest continues to grow. Still, those investors point to policy uncertainty, slow permitting, and limited regulatory capacity as major obstacles to moving projects forward.
Wangari Muchiri, founder and chief executive of RE.Think Energy, said the funding commitment signals that “the next phase of the energy transition is not about proving clean energy works, it’s about removing the barriers preventing it from scaling fast enough.”
The Bloomberg initiative is focused not just on ambitious energy targets, but on helping projects secure long-term investment and successfully connect to national power grids.
“The 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,” Muchiri said.
