Green Capital Unlocking Africa’s Energy Potential with Strategic Investments in Renewable Energies
By Ndubuisi Micheal Obineme
…adopts an innovative business model for clean energy projects across Africa.
Green Capital, a Polish investment group, has adopted a strategic business model to unlock Africa’s energy potential by making strategic investments in renewable energies, including solar energy, wind energy, and green hydrogen.
With over 15 years of operational excellence in the global renewable energy sector, Green Capital delivers clean energy to public and private consumers in Poland and moves to replicate its success stories in other European, South American, and African countries. The company’s green energy deliverables include solar energy, wind energy, and green hydrogen projects including, green ammonia, and green steel.
Green Capital is leveraging its global expertise in expanding its operations in the African renewable energy market and deploying solar energy systems to underserved areas in Africa.
Africa has vast resource potential in wind energy, solar energy, hydro, geothermal energy, including opportunities for hydrogen development, and Green Capital is poised to unlock Africa’s renewable energy potential to increase energy access and strengthen the continent’s renewable energy infrastructures.
According to the African Development Bank Group (AFDB), Africa has unlimited potential for solar capacity (10 TW), abundant hydro (350 GW), wind (110 GW), and geothermal energy sources (15 GW). Solar energy has the greatest potential among the listed options. The continent receives abundant sunlight throughout the year, making solar energy a viable and sustainable source of renewable power.
Africa is signaling a major resurgence in solar energy growth across the continent, with 23GW of new solar installations expected between 2025 – 2028. Solar energy installations stand at 19.2 GWp, with 3.7 GW of new solar energy installations expected in 2025, according to the AFSIA African Annual Solar Outlook latest report.
Notably, Green Capital is expanding its solar energy footprint across African countries, and recently acquired land to develop a 10MW and a 5MW photovoltaic (PV) project in Tanzania. This strategic acquisition will provide Green Capital with full ownership rights, ensuring long-term stability and project continuity.
Today, Green Capital is developing projects in eight African countries, which include Namibia, Morocco, Tunisia, South Africa, Togo, Mauritania, Zambia, and Tanzania.
In Namibia, Green Capital operates from Windhoek, strategically positioned to tap into the region’s vast potential for renewable energy. The company is actively engaged in developing solar projects throughout the country. In addition, the company has an appetite for bringing one of the biggest green hydrogen projects in the region.
In Morocco, on top of solar and wind plants, Green Capital plans to install wind plants in strategic areas of the country to power state-of-the-art electrolyzers that will convert wind energy into hydrogen, to later export it in the form of ammonia.
In Tunisia, Green Capital is mainly focusing on a hybrid project (wind, solar energy, and storage) in the desert areas of the country. The company is adopting innovative solutions such as solar tracking technology to optimize the performance of PV panels, which allows efficient use of available resources.
In South Africa, Green Capital boasts extensive experience in wind and solar development. The company has a diversified project portfolio exceeding 1,000MW, positioning Green Capital as a key player in the nation’s renewable energy landscape.
Furthermore, Green Capital is currently finalizing discussions with the Ministry of Energy of Togo regarding the key parameters of a 100MW solar farm project, equipped with an energy storage system, located in the Central Region. The project aims to support the sustainable development of the region by providing clean, reliable energy that will power local communities.
Green Capital is also focusing on developing wind and photovoltaic (PV) power projects by integrating them with green hydrogen production facilities in Mauritania. The company plans to install hybrid wind turbines and PV panels in areas with strong winds, supplying energy to electrolyzers that produce low-carbon hydrogen. This project aims to increase the region’s energy independence and establish Mauritania as a leader in innovative green hydrogen solutions.
While in Zambia, Green Capital is currently developing two solar power plants, each with a capacity of 50MW, located in the northern part of the country. Green Capital plans to undertake additional projects. With these power plants in Zambia, Green Capital will expand its presence in the southern part of Africa.
Tanzania serves as a key arena for Green Capital’s renewable endeavors, with a focus on solar initiatives. Green Capital Tanzania, in collaboration with local stakeholders, is advancing solar projects of 15MW.
With Tanzania identified as an important market for Green Capital’s expansion, the company is actively seeking further investment opportunities across Africa.
Mikołaj Kowalczyk, Green Capital’s Head of International Development & Investment, in an exclusive interview with The Energy Republic, said the company’s mission, vision, and goals are focused on providing renewable and sustainable energy solutions to the public and private sector across Africa.
“We are already working on several projects, approximately 40,000MW of green electricity all over the world,” Kowalczyk revealed.
“In Africa, we intend to commence construction of our first projects early in the year 2026. We will add more solar, wind power plants, and green hydrogen projects in Africa in the coming years.”
Speaking about Green Capital’s project in Tanzania, he said the company is working closely with Tanzania’s utility company, Tanesco, and local communities.
“Tanzania is a stable country with a lot of economic potential and natural conditions to generate renewable energy. The conditions aren’t fully utilized. The share of green energy in the energy mix of Tanzania isn’t up to the standard of what the government expects,” Kowalczyk stated. “Green Capital wants to contribute to increasing the share of renewable energy in Tanzania. We have signed the documentation with the local energy company and are currently developing the projects. We are doing the environmental studies, and grid analyses. We have been doing this for over a year now, and once we are done with the permits, we will be able to start construction of the projects.”
Speaking further, Kowalczyk noted that the Green Capital project in Tanzania would also create job opportunities in-country, for skilled and unskilled workers during the project construction and operational phase.
“There are also opportunities for both skilled and unskilled workers. The skilled job opportunities are maintenance, installation, while the unskilled opportunities are cleaning, guarding, and security activities,” he explained.
He reiterated Green Capital’s commitment to local content development in Africa’s renewable energy sector, stating that the company employs indigenous workers, both skilled and unskilled, for project development in Africa.
The planned solar energy development in Tanzania will provide 15MW of solar energy, providing green electricity to the communities in Tanzania. Green Capital’s projects will contribute significantly to the country’s growing energy needs, supporting economic development and industrialization efforts.
In his words, Kowalczyk said the consumer base for renewable energy is enormous in Tanzania due to the country’s economic development, coupled with the energy access challenges facing Tanzania, which require more electricity.
Beyond Tanzania, Green Capital has adopted a strategic business model across Africa, maintaining a solid footprint in strengthening the company’s operations in the continent’s renewable energy value chain.
“Green Capital has a strong presence in Africa. Our employees are indigenous people, which is a very big advantage for us,” Kowalczyk said.
“Many companies operate in Africa from their headquarters overseas. But this isn’t our case.
“For our projects in Africa, we have local presence, and we employ local engineers to lead the development of our projects there in Africa.
“Green Capital works with all stakeholders involved in the process of licensing and building our power plants because we want to abide by the rules in developing our green energy projects in Africa. We don’t take shortcuts through the regulatory procedures,” he reiterated.
In addition, Kowalczyk said Green Capital intends to integrate battery storage solutions to enhance grid stability, energy security, and sustainability in their solar projects.
According to him, battery storage is used frequently to stabilize the grid, which would also enable solar and wind installations to provide electricity, especially when there is no sunshine and wind.
“When there is a storage capacity, you can accumulate the energy that wasn’t used during the day and make it available to people for usage when there is no sunshine.”
Highlighting the challenges involved in developing solar energy projects in Africa, he stressed that the major challenge is the ‘grid’, and it has now become a global challenge, even in Poland, and not only in Africa.
“The grid isn’t robust enough and doesn’t have sufficient capacity to evacuate all energy that can be produced and used,” he explained.
“To use the energy produced by a solar plant, it must be connected to the grid, which must have enough capacity to transport this electricity from the source of power to where it will be used.
“The problem many countries face is the grid. The grid doesn’t have enough capacity.
“The government needs to continue investing in grid infrastructure. They need to expand the grid both in terms of adding new capacity to the existing lines and also building new lines, as well as connecting communities that aren’t connected to the grid.
“Another challenge is that in some countries there are still no clear rules and regulations for developing green energy.
“For a country to fully benefit from renewable energy, there must be a well-structured legislation with a clear path in developing renewable energy projects,” he maintained.
“We invest in countries that have the right conditions for renewable energy development. This includes favourable procedures and regulatory frameworks involved in developing renewable energy in the country.
“We are interested in investing in solar energy and wind plants across Africa. We are open to exploring renewable energy opportunities in emerging African countries,” he added.
