By harnessing the power of the Tiber river, the Romans were able to generate energy and power, leading to the development of aqueducts that provided water and generated power, which was used to power machinery, enabling the most advanced technology of the time, including the famous Cenatio Rotunda, a perpetually rotating dining room that moved day and night ensuring that Emperor Nero always had the best views of Rome; the ability to build the largest colosseum in the world in only 8 years (a building housing 70,000 spectators and 48 meters high – or three times as wide as an American football field and almost twice as long); and ultimately the ability have the largest city in the world, Rome, reach 1 million inhabitants. The abundance of water as an energy source was fundamental to the growth and development of the economy and empire.

In more recent history, the harnessing of ‘coal’, leading to the method by which we powered the steam engine (invented in 1778) spurring the industrial revolution, led the UK, where coal was most abundant, and therefore, by default, cheaper to harness, led to the growth of the British Empire and economy between 1750 and 1919, with British coal production increasing from 5.2 million tons of coal per year to 62.5 million tons per year.  Most recently, in the 1940s, the discovery of oil and natural gas started replacing coal as a dominant energy source, and most cheaply available in the US, this has allowed the US economy to outpace global growth and become a world-dominant power over the last 80 years in the same manner as other empires before it.

As we consider the many examples across time, it is evident that a direct, causal, and reciprocal relationship exists between energy consumption and economic growth. Longitudinal studies reveal that a 0.6% increase in energy consumption correlated with a 1% increase in real GDP per capita. In OECD countries, a 0.9% increase in electricity usage between 1981 and 2007 corresponded to a 1.7% GDP growth. This effect is even more pronounced in emerging markets, where a 2% annual increase in electricity consumption in non-OECD countries resulted in an impressive 3.7% GDP growth.

Bringing us to today. Installed solar capacity is growing ten-fold every decade; the reality of which can take one’s breath away. In the words of The Economist: “To call solar power’s rise exponential is not hyperbole, but a statement of fact. The next ten-fold increase will be equivalent to multiplying the world’s entire fleet of nuclear reactors by eight in less than the time it typically takes to build just a single one of them.”

Harnessing the sun’s power is the opportunity provided mainly to those who have it in abundance.  As we have witnessed the cost of solar panels decreasing by an impressive factor of 500 since the mid 1970s, and the doubling of solar cell efficiency over the past 20 years, increasing from 11% to 22% in converting solar energy into electricity, we have also seen the persistent challenge of energy storage, particularly for nighttime use, become more manageable and cost-effective. In the past 30 years, the cost of a kilowatt-hour (kWh) of battery storage has dropped by 99%, making energy storage increasingly affordable. By the mid-2030s, as demand continues to grow, solar cells are expected to become the most cost-effective and predominant source of electrical power worldwide. Solar modules have become so affordable that they are now even cheaper than garden fences, with some being used for that purpose. This substantial cost reduction means that solar power is no longer the significant capital expenditure it once was.

As the ability to capture the sun’s power becomes scalable and affordable, will the availability of this resource, the sun, become an indicator of economic growth?  Will the countries with the most ‘sun’ gain competitive advantage in their ability to build their economies, just as those that could have the cheapest access to oil or coal did before them.

The sun's immense power is remarkable—it delivers more energy in one hour than humanity consumes in an entire year—and unlike fossil fuels, Africa receives abundant sunlight year-round, with an average solar irradiance of about 2,000 kWh/m²/year in many regions with countries like Egypt, Botswana, and Namibia having some of the highest solar potentials globally.

Sunlight and Solar Capacity

In addition, the case for Africa is one of leapfrogging, not rebuilding. To provide further context: leapfrogging in technology adoption is cheaper, faster, and has higher rate of acceptance than replacing.  It is easier to build fintech and digital payments in Kenya where there is no legacy infrastructure (resulting in MPesa) than it is to replace the banking system in a country with an already-existing strong banking system.  Similarly, it will be easier to adopt solar energy in a place that has no energy, with a net gain on each person that now has energy, than it will be to replace a grid that functions and that people have depended on for decades, and that creates jobs.

Africa's vast solar potential contrasts sharply with its limited grid infrastructure. Many areas, especially in rural regions, lack sufficient grid coverage, and existing grids are often outdated, unreliable, and too expensive for many residents. This gap highlights the crucial role of solar power in Africa, where decentralized, commercially-driven solar projects are gaining momentum. As an example of potential uses, one ambitious project is harnessing of the sun’s power to boost food security, in Nigeria by deploying solar irrigation across 200,000 hectares of farmland with an expectation of boosting grain crop production by 1.2 million tons each year.  Unlike Europe, the United States, China, and other regions that have heavily relied on fossil fuels, Africa has the unique opportunity to leap directly to solar energy solutions. This approach addresses the fundamental challenge of providing power where it is most needed, rather than merely replacing existing grid infrastructure.

To put this in simple numbers, of the 760 million people in the world without power, 600 million are in Africa – this is 43% of the population on the continent.  Energy, the same factor that transformed economies like the United Kingdom with coal, the United States with oil, and Russia with natural gas, could now be the catalyst for reversing that narrative and fueling Africa’s economy.

With the development of solar technology having surpassed Moore’s Law, the abundance of limitless solar capacity on the African continent, and history illustrating that those who have the cheapest and most abundant sources of power can accelerate their economic growth, could it be that this is the moment that the continent set to become the next economic superpower? Only this time around, will it be from the sun?

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