Report: global off-grid solar sales grew 40% in 2015

According to the report, approximately 2.22 million products, or 54.3% of all devices, have been sold in Sub-Saharan Africa. South Asia accounts for 1.6 million, or 39% of sold products. The East Asia & Pacific region is the third with a significantly lower reported number of products sold—105,187 or 2.6% of global sales. The combined sales of all other regions amount to about 165,579 products.

Most of the products sold in Sub-Saharan Africa now provide power for people in Tanzania (473,009 products), Kenya (472,612) and Ethiopia (363,950). In South Asian region, more than 90% of off-grid devices have been purchased in India.

The total cash sales revenues for all products amount to US$ 118,077,167 globally. Most of the revenues from cash sales in the second half of the last year were generated in Africa (US$ 59 million) and South Asia (US$ 47 million). Despite the nearly 40% difference in the amount of products sold in these two regions, revenues from cash sales in Africa are only 25% higher than those in South Asia.

Such difference in the cash sales revenues is easily explained by the fact that a higher proportion of devices sold in Africa are the cheapest entry-level products with the capacity of up to 1.5 Wp. On the global scale, these products accounted for 54% of sales, but generated only 21.4% of the total cash sales revenues.

Meanwhile, off-grid solar products with a single light and mobile phone charging capability in the 1.5-3 Wp range accounted for approximately 39% of all sales in H2 2015 but generated 58.7% of the total cash sales revenues or US$ 69.3 million.

The combined revenues of 31 companies represented in the report totaled US$136.5 million in July-December 2015.