Zambia’s Government Delivers On Its Promise To Ramp Up Electricity Generation Capacity, With Solar Playing A Key Role

Zambia has been building out solar power fast, after years of drought crippled the country's mostly hydro-powered grid and led to blackouts lasting up to 20 hours a day. The government set a goal of growing total electricity generation capacity from 4.5 gigawatts to 10 gigawatts, with solar as a major piece of that plan.

The numbers show real progress. Solar capacity grew from 88 megawatts in 2021 to 841 megawatts in 2026, closing in on a 1,000-megawatt target set for the end of this year. Total installed capacity rose from 3,100 to 4,576 megawatts over the same period, helped along by the full commissioning of the 750-megawatt Kafue Gorge Lower hydropower station. The country also introduced a net metering program, which lets households and businesses with their own power generation sell surplus electricity back to the grid; that program now contributes more than 30 megawatts nationally.

Access to electricity has expanded too, with more than 300,000 new connections since 2022, pushing national access from 34 percent to 56 percent. Rural access rose from 8 to 34 percent, and a program called ASCENT has cut the cost of a standard connection for eligible rural and peri-urban households from 4,846 kwacha to 300 kwacha. None of this changes rebates or programs available in the United States, but it's a notable example of how quickly a country can scale up solar power when the alternative is losing electricity to a changing climate.