Sun King plans to invest up to $150 million in Ethiopia by 2030, targeting two million households and businesses as it expands into one of Africa’s least electrified markets.
The investment follows a memorandum of understanding with the Ethiopian Investment Commission, under which Sun King will establish a local subsidiary while authorities support licensing and regulatory approvals.
The move is part of the company’s broader $1.3 billion Africa expansion strategy through the end of the decade, driven by rising demand for off-grid energy solutions.
Despite having significant generation capacity, including power from the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, large parts of Ethiopia remain without reliable grid access, particularly in rural areas where extending transmission infrastructure is costly.
Sun King aims to fill this gap with distributed solar systems such as home kits and mini-grids, which are faster and cheaper to deploy.
The expansion comes amid broader efforts to improve electricity access across Africa, including the Mission 300 initiative backed by the World Bank and the African Development Bank, which targets connecting 300 million people by 2030.
Founded in 2007 as Greenlight Planet, Sun King operates in 14 African countries, offering pay-as-you-go solar products that allow low-income households to pay in instalments.
Africa remains the largest growth market for off-grid solar, with nearly 600 million people still lacking access to electricity, positioning Ethiopia as one of the last major untapped opportunities on the continent.