Falling battery prices have yet to translate into significant investment in energy storage across Africa, with funding constraints, regulatory gaps and inadequate infrastructure planning limiting the deployment of technologies needed to support renewable energy growth.

According to the latest ESI Africa Industry Insights: Energy & Storage Volume 5 (2026), stationary battery pack prices fell to about $70 per kilowatt-hour in 2025, representing a 45 per cent year-on-year decline, based on figures from BloombergNEF.

However, only $666 million of the $13.84 billion invested in Africa’s energy transition in 2025 went into energy storage and flexibility, accounting for less than five per cent of the total, according to data tracked by Electron Intelligence.

The report highlights the disconnect between the declining cost of battery technologies and the investment required to scale up storage capacity across the continent.

Editor-in-Chief of ESI Africa, Nicolette Pombo-van Zyl, said energy storage had become a critical factor in determining the viability of energy projects, grid stability and the effective use of renewable electricity.

“Storage has become the part that decides whether a project gets financed, whether a grid stays stable after sunset and whether the clean energy already being generated is actually used,” she said.

Pombo-van Zyl added that capital, regulation and data had yet to catch up with the growing importance of storage in Africa’s energy sector.

The publication examines the economics of battery storage, including modelling in South Africa that identifies lithium iron phosphate (LFP) as a leading option among competing battery chemistries for stationary applications.

It also assesses factors affecting project profitability, including deployment scale, battery degradation in hot climates, financing costs, import tariffs and freight charges.

The report further considers emerging battery technologies, their implications for Africa’s mineral value chains, cybersecurity risks and long-duration energy storage solutions.

These issues are increasingly important as African countries seek to expand renewable energy capacity while addressing electricity supply challenges and the intermittency of solar and wind power.

The publication also draws attention to the rapid expansion of distributed solar energy across the continent, which presents additional challenges for electricity planning and grid management.

According to Ember, approximately 26 gigawatts of solar capacity was installed across Africa between 2023 and 2025. Only about a quarter of this growth was captured in utility-scale and off-grid figures, highlighting gaps in the registration and tracking of solar installations.

The report said better data collection and registration would help policymakers and electricity planners understand the scale of distributed solar deployment and its implications for power networks.

It also highlights the growing role of battery storage in renewable energy financing, featuring projects such as Scatec’s Obelisk project in Egypt and Mulilo’s Hartebeesfontein battery storage project.

Pombo-van-Zyl said the next phase of market development would depend on decisions by regulators, utilities and financiers on how storage services are valued, how connected infrastructure is protected and how quickly projects can be prepared to attract capital.

She said these challenges were solvable, adding that the sector already had the tools needed to address them.

The Energy & Storage volume was published in partnership with Envusa Energy, NOA Group and Lyra Energy and is available for free download to subscribers and non-subscribers.

The issues identified in the publication are also expected to feature at VUKA Group’s Commercial and Industrial (C&I) Energy + Storage Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, scheduled for October 28 and 29 at The Maslow Hotel, Sandton.

The summit will bring together commercial and industrial energy users, project developers and financiers to discuss storage investment, energy procurement and cost certainty.