World Bank and GOGLA Count 149 Million Off-Grid Solar Users, Up 26%

• Off-grid solar products served 149 million people in 2025, up from 118 million in 2023, the World Bank's ESMAP and GOGLA said on Oct. 27.
• The report finds off-grid solar is the least-cost option for at least 398 million people; 655 million had no electricity in 2024.
• Reaching all 398 million would take about $11.4 billion from 2027 to 2030; corporate financing held at $315 million in 2025.

Off-grid solar products served 149 million people in 2025, up 26% from 118 million in 2023, according to a new market report. ESMAP, a World Bank energy program, and the industry association GOGLA released the Off-Grid Solar Market Trends Report 2026 on Oct. 27 in Kigali, Rwanda.

The figures cover affiliate companies, mainly GOGLA members and sellers of quality-verified products. They sold 12 million products in 2025, up 12% from 10.7 million in 2023. Sales of small solar home systems grew 40% in 2025 and large ones 50%. Pay-as-you-go deals made up 48% of sales, up from 39% in 2023.

East and Southern Africa took about 60% of affiliate sales. Kenya, the largest market, recorded sales of 2.4 million units in 2025, while most West and Central African markets are not growing.

The off-grid solar market in numbers

• 31 million more people served than in 2023, or about 15.5 million a year (list.solar calculation).
• At least 398 million people, or 41% of those who need electricity access by 2030, for whom off-grid solar is the least-cost option.
• 655 million people had no electricity in 2024, the latest year in the separate Tracking SDG 7 report.
• 95% of surveyed pay-as-you-go customers said their quality-verified solar home system still worked four or more years after purchase.
• $974 million in World Bank Group commitments to off-grid solar over fiscal 2025–26, level with the previous two fiscal years.
• $315 million of corporate financing in 2025, about 20% of the $1.6 billion a year in equity and debt needed in 2027–2030 (list.solar calculation).

Affordability remains a hurdle. About a third of households without power can afford an entry-level system on pay-as-you-go terms, and another third only at a stretch. Reaching all 398 million people would cost about $11.4 billion from 2027 to 2030.

"Yet financing has not kept pace with what off-grid solar is being asked to do," GOGLA Executive Director Sarah Malm said in a statement.

Mission 300, a World Bank and African Development Bank initiative, aims to connect 300 million people in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030. Of its 35 national energy compacts, 80% include distributed renewable energy in their connection targets.

GOGLA is now revising the impact metrics behind the user count. Lifespans of three years for lanterns and five for solar home systems would lift the 2025 figure to almost 170 million, the report says.