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Insights Centre
Sectors

Energy

Power plants and lines being built, how far the grid reaches, how reliable supply is and what energy costs.

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SADC exports of the pillar's goodsUS$46.4bn2024
Deals in the last 12 months75US$8.9bn where the value is confirmed · 160 tracked in all
Subsectors95 with trade data

What this page answers

  • Which power plants are operating, being built or planned, and how much capacity is coming?
  • Where is the grid being extended?
  • Which towns and suburbs sit far from the grid?
  • How reliable is supply, and what do power and fuel cost?

Mauritius leads SADC on electricity access

Access to electricity, % of population, latest year for each country. Click a bar for that country's energy page.

0%20%40%60%80%100%Mauritius100.0%Seychelles100.0%Comoros91.7%South Africa90.2%Eswatini89.3%Botswana80.2%Zimbabwe62.0%Lesotho60.6%Namibia59.3%Angola55.5%Zambia53.6%Tanzania52.4%Madagascar42.5%Mozambique36.9%DRC22.5%Malawi15.6%median 60.0%

Source: World Bank·dotzedw Insights Centre

Subsectors

9 in this pillar

Utility-scale generation

Tracks
Capacity by technology and status, owners, expected commissioning dates and how far projects slip, procurement rounds and licences.
Signals ahead
Licences issued, financial close, grid connection approvals.

Select a figure for its trend. Source: dotzedw deals tracker.

Open these deals in the deals tracker

More figures for this subsector are being added.

What SADC sells abroad across energy

SADC exports by subsector, 2024, US$. A product can count in two subsectors.

Oil, gas and LNGUS$40.3bn+15% on five years earlier
Fuel supplyUS$4.2bn+30% on five years earlier
Power trading and private supplyUS$1.7bn+88% on five years earlier
Off-grid solar, mini-grids and storageUS$235m+130% on five years earlier
Green hydrogen and new fuelsUS$5.0m-26% on five years earlier
Source: CEPII BACI·dotzedw Insights Centre

Who is moving

Open in the deals tracker

75 deals in the last 12 months across SADC, placed in subsectors by what they say.

Where the energy opportunity is strongest in SADC

Each sector is sized in three layers: the addressable market, the part today's rails can serve, and the share a new entrant can win now. Every driver is either a sourced indicator or listed openly as a gap, so you can see what the ranking rests on and what it cannot yet see.

Energy: Off-grid solar, mini-grids, storage, metering and power trading. On the drivers we can measure, Zambia leads SADC with 68 out of 100, ahead of Tanzania (65) and Namibia (63).

Energy ranking

Scores run from 0 to 100 by rank within SADC; 100 is the strongest signal. Sort by any layer.

#Country
1Zambia68526389
2Tanzania65775067
3Namibia63486774

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A signal of relative opportunity, not a market size estimate. 10 measured drivers, 4 gaps not yet scored. Latest values are used, whatever their year.

What drives each layer

Open any measured driver for its definition, source and the full regional picture.

Addressable market

How big the pool of potential customers is.

  • (the unserved market) · SADC median 6.3m
  • · SADC median 19.4m
  • (size of the power system) · SADC median 3.4 TWh
  • (import dependence leaves room for local supply) · SADC median 0.0%

Serviceable market

How much of it today's rails can reach.

  • · SADC median 65.4%
  • (demand from homes and industry) · SADC median 516
  • (access to finance) · SADC median 18.8%
  • · SADC median 19.3%
Not yet measured
  • Transmission and distribution losses · source: Utility annual reports; Southern African Power Pool

Obtainable share

How easy it is to win customers now.

  • (pay-as-you-go solar runs on mobile money) · SADC median 46.6%
  • · SADC median 59.8%
Not yet measured
  • Electricity tariffs and outages · source: RERA tariff reports; World Bank Enterprise Surveys
  • Data centres · source: Data centre directories (manual entry)
  • Venture funding · source: Paid deal feed

Where the opportunities sit

Pay-as-you-go solarMini-gridsSmart metering and monitoringEnergy trading platformsBatteries and storageEnergy as a serviceElectric vehicle charging

Track live energy activity in Deals and Projects. Each gap above closes as analysts add data through the admin or a paid source is switched on.

Sources and method