South Africa’s Koeberg nuclear power plant (Image source: Adobe Stock)

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has launched a new outlook on nuclear power in Africa

The report surveys the continent’s current energy landscape, highlighting the prospects for nuclear power to address the lack of electricity that is still a daily reality for about half a billion people.

South Africa is for now the only African country with nuclear power, with the two-unit Koeberg nuclear power plant near Cape Town supplying almost two gigawatts of capacity.

However, enthusiasm is building across the continent where fossil fuels currently dominate energy production, accounting for more than 70% of electricity production.

During its current G20 presidency, South Africa is partnering with the IAEA to focus on the implementation of nuclear new-build programmes in Africa.

There is particular interest in small modular reactors (SMRs) given the grid infrastructure constraints.

“The global interest in SMRs is increasing due to their ability to meet the need for flexible power generation for a wider range of users and applications as we move from high carbon emissions to lower carbon emission sources,” said Zizamele Mbambo, deputy director general for nuclear energy in South Africa’s Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE).

A growing number of African countries are interested in adding nuclear to their energy mix, with Egypt building its first four-unit nuclear power plant, expected to be ready by 2028.

Ghana and Kenya are also working with the IAEA to develop the requisite infrastructure to launch their programmes.

The latest IAEA projections have nuclear capacity in Africa increasing tenfold by 2050 in the high-case scenario, while even in the low case scenario the current figure grows by a factor of five.

But it would come at a huge financial cost: in the high-case scenario, nuclear capacity could require more than US$100bn in additional investment.

“Access to reliable and low-carbon energy sources such as nuclear can enable Africa to further explore and more importantly also add benefits and value to its vast natural resources, including uranium,” said Frederik Reitsma, head of the IAEA’s nuclear power technology development section.

“History has shown that the development of a nuclear power programme, and the development of the associated supply chain, drives industrial growth and leads to advanced technology development in other areas.”

The IAEA report takes an in-depth look at what is required to deploy enough nuclear to meet the continent’s significant energy needs, underscoring the importance of addressing financing challenges, implementing strong, supportive government policies and adopting a regional approach to nuclear power development.

It also details IAEA support in these and other areas.

The publication also looks at how SMRs could play a major role in Africa, highlighting benefits such as their suitability for the relatively small electric grids that are common in Africa as well as lower capital costs.

Uranium mining is also identified as a significant growth opportunity for the continent, which is already home to three of the world’s top 10 uranium producers: Namibia, Niger and South Africa.

Some 14% of global uranium production is today from countries in Africa.

For now, South Africa stands out as the prime example for nuclear energy in Africa.

The Koeberg Unit 1 long-term operation licence was granted in 2024, allowing the power station to extend the unit’s operational life by 20 years.

In addition, the DMRE Integrated Resource Plan of 2023 aims to add 2,500 MW of new nuclear capacity, including SMRs, after 2030, which has been approved by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA).

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Boosting Africa's uptake of solar energy (Image source: Adobe Stock)

A new €6mn (US$7mn) finance facility has been created to help small businesses in Africa to buy more solar generators

Green Genset Facility (GGF), a not-for-profit empowering small and medium-sized distributors supplying solar generators to the off-grid or weak-grid retail market, will use the grant funding to expand clean energy coverage.

The facility comes via ZE-Gen, a collaborative initiative of the Carbon Trust and Innovate UK, both of which receive backing, directly or indirectly, from UK public funds.

ZE-Gen’s grant funding for GGF is made possible following support for ZE-Gen from IKEA Foundation, a philanthropic organisation.

Maxime Marion, managing director of GGF, said the additional grant funding “enables GGF to power-charge the solar generator market in sub-Saharan Africa.”

Marion added: “For too long small and medium distributors have been priced out of the market by onerous, inaccessible and complex finance facilities, limiting customer choice and restricting competitive market growth and the GGF funding marks a step change in the market.”

Unlike conventional finance, GGF finance is fast and simple, and its iterative approach allows distributors to only buy the stock they are confident they can sell, avoiding costly stockpiling, minimising risk and enabling sustainable growth.

ZE-Gen’s collaboration will allow GGF to ramp up its work breaking down the traditional barriers to financing solar inventory that many small and medium wholesalers face, such as low-ticket sizes, complex due diligence and high transaction costs.

The new funding is part of ZE-Gen’s mission to make renewable energy the affordable go-to source of power in countries where reliable electricity is limited or non-existent and follows a further £10mn (US$13.4mn) in support from the IKEA Foundation earlier this year.

Despite being home to two-thirds of the world’s population, emerging economies currently only account for 15% of global clean energy investment, with homes and businesses facing frequent blackouts that can last for weeks at a time, negatively impacting daily lives, health and business income.

ZE-Gen’s approach tackles market barriers to renewable energy-based alternatives to fossil fuel generators by uniting innovation, finance and skills to drive competitive market growth.

To date, it has catalysed £39.75mn (US$53.4mn) — against a £100mn (US134.4mn) target — and supported more than 30 projects across Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cote d’Ivoire, South Africa, Malawi and Uganda, as well as Fiji and the Philippines outside Africa.

“Globally, around 1.5 billion people don’t have access to reliable electricity and the potential market for renewable energy generators across sub-Saharan Africa is huge,” said Lily Beadle, ZE-Gen lead at the Carbon Trust.

“The success and failure of any business hinges on being able to access affordable working capital and so ZE-Gen’s involvement with GGF will make a huge difference to the growth of the solar generator market and create new green jobs.”

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Infinity Power arrives in Ivory Coast

Infinity Power has signed agreements for two solar power projects that together will provide 80MW of clean electricity to the Ivory Coast

The two concessions — announced on 7 August 2025, Ivorian independence day — were awarded under the World Bank’s Scaling Solar initiative via a competitive tender process.

The projects will consist of two solar PV plants with a combined capacity of 80 MW in Touba and Laboa, plus the construction of 17 km of power transmission lines to integrate the new sites into the national grid.

Once operational, the two plants will provide electricity to over 400,000 consumers, enhancing energy access and security across the country.

It marks Infinity Power’s first collaboration with the Ivorian government, according to Mohamed Ismail Mansour, the company’s co-founder and chairman, who hailed it as a “breakthrough moment” for the business.

“Being entrusted with projects of this importance demonstrates our ability to deliver on Africa’s energy potential,” he said.

“These solar plants will not just bring affordable electricity to hundreds of thousands of people but will also empower communities, strengthen infrastructure and accelerate the country’s progress toward a decarbonised future. We are proud to be in a position to lead such a transformative effort.”

The tender process was overseen by the country’s Directorate General for Energy and CI Energies, with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) serving as an advisor to the Ivorian government.

Infinity Power’s bid was deemed the most competitive, ensuring an affordable, reliable and sustainable energy supply, with the projects also set to enable the avoidance of more than 60,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year.

It was awarded the project with a bid to supply 80 MW of solar at €0.03310 per kWh for the Laboa site and €0.03213 per kWh for the Touba site, setting a new record for the lowest solar independent power producer tariffs in West and Central Africa.

Together, they will help Ivory Coast reach its goal of increasing the country’s share of renewable energy to 42% by 2030, from only about 1% currently.

“These projects have three key objectives: to increase our production capacity, to strengthen our energy resilience and to create local job and investment opportunities,” said Mamadou Sangafowa-Coulibaly, Minister of Mines, Petroleum and Energy.

“[They] represent a significant step towards meeting our climate commitments by 2030.”

Infinity Power — a joint venture between Egypt’s Infinity and Masdar (Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company) and Africa's largest renewables provider — is on track to achieve a goal of developing 10 GW of energy projects globally by 2030.

“We have shown that renewable energy can be cost-effective, reliable and impactful at scale,”said Nayer Fouad, co-founder and CEO of Infinity Power.

Fouad said the Ivorian projects represent a “new chapter” in the West African country’s energy sector.

“With the invaluable support of the Government of Côte d'Ivoire, CI Energies, and the IFC, we are ready to deliver projects that will transform lives.”

Marie Chantal Uwanyiligira, World Bank division director for Ivory Coast, as well as for Benin, Guinea and Togo, said the country had already made “significant progress” in expanding access to electricity for its population.

“Increasing the share of solar energy in its mix, as demonstrated in this operation, will not only lower generation costs but also set the country on the path to universal access. The World Bank Group applauds these efforts and stands ready to leverage its financing and technical expertise to attract more private sector investment.”

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Vertiv unveils OneCore, a prefabricated solution designed to accelerate global data centre deployment with power, cooling, and IT integration. (Image source: Vertiv)

Vertiv, a global provider of critical digital infrastructure, has launched Vertiv OneCore to the global market, a scalable prefabricated system that integrates the company’s established power, thermal, and IT infrastructure technologies into one factory-assembled solution

Designed to accelerate high-density data center deployments, OneCore reduces on-site complexity, shortens project timelines, and is now available worldwide for enterprise, colocation, sovereign, and neocloud environments.

OneCore delivers a complete turnkey solution, covering every stage from design and installation to operational readiness, managed through a single point of contact. Its flexible building design incorporates prefabricated modules, including whitespace fit-outs such as SmartRun, enclosed in a Vertiv-built steel shell. This configuration simplifies logistics, reduces the need for on-site labor, ensures consistent quality, and delivers predictable cost and schedule outcomes. The Unify platform provides centralised visibility and control across the system.

“Vertiv OneCore is our answer to the need for reducing complexity and enabling speed in building data center capacity at scale,” said Viktor Petik, senior vice-president of infrastructure solutions at Vertiv. “We know the challenge isn’t just designing for today’s needs but building an adaptable foundation for the future. This solution reduces project complexity by standardising key components while preserving the flexibility to scale and evolve, expand easily, and integrate new technologies as business and IT requirements evolve.”

Built for both mixed loads and extreme rack densities, OneCore features modular electrical and mechanical systems that enable parallel manufacturing for faster delivery and cost savings. Free from fixed size limitations, it supports custom configurations to maximize usable space and enhance airflow for improved environmental control.

Key capabilities include:

• Scalable power capacity: Delivers 5 to 50 MW in a single block to meet the growing energy requirements of AI and other high-density applications.

• High rack density flexibility: Supports 96 to 944 racks, accommodating a range of density needs.

• Integrated thermal and power systems: Offers energy-efficient cooling and power infrastructure, including liquid cooling options, advanced heat rejection systems, and scalable UPS solutions.

• Concurrent maintainability: Designed to maintain uptime and resilience during maintenance or upgrades.

• Optimized site performance: Operates reliably in temperatures from -20°C to 55°C (-4°F to 131°F) for diverse global climates.

• Advanced redundancy: Includes options for redundant primary and secondary fluid networks, along with distributed electrical redundancy.

• Broad voltage compatibility: Supports 11 to 35 kV medium voltage and 400V to 480V 3-phase AC power, meeting various regional standards.

• Comprehensive service and support: Backed by Vertiv’s global service network, offering expert commissioning, proactive maintenance, and rapid response capabilities.

OneCore integrates Vertiv’s portfolio of power, thermal, and management technologies, including Trinergy UPS systems, switchgear, busways, CoolChip CDU and perimeter cooling, CoolLoop Trim Cooler, Liebert AFC chiller, and the Unify management platform.

The solution also supports sustainability initiatives by improving operational efficiency, reducing energy consumption, and offering a flexible design that can adapt to evolving technology standards.