By Engr. Dehyu C. Zangar
Liberia’s chronic dry-season electricity shortages are rooted in the country’s heavy dependence on hydropower. The Mount Coffee Hydropower Plant, the anchor of Liberia’s generation fleet, experiences a significant decline in output each year as the St. Paul River’s flow diminishes during the dry season, roughly from December through May. The result is a predictable and recurring power deficit that forces load-shedding, increases reliance on costly diesel-fired backup generation, and undermines the reliability that businesses and households need to thrive. These shortages constrain productivity, burden households and limit industrial growth.
Yet Liberia is now at a critical turning point. Utility-scale solar power, combined with modern battery storage, is emerging as a realistic, increasingly cost-competitive and environmentally sustainable solution to the country’s seasonal energy vulnerability. Liberia should no longer treat the dry-season power crisis as an unavoidable cost of doing business. It is a solvable engineering and policy challenge—and solar paired with battery storage offers one of the most practical and rapidly deployable solutions.
The Current State of Liberia’s Power Sector
As of 2024, Liberia’s installed generation capacity stood at approximately 126 MW, comprising 88 MW of hydropower and 38 MW of heavy fuel oil (HFO) thermal generation. However, because of hydrological variability, aging thermal assets and maintenance constraints, only about 93 MW was typically operational at any given time. During the driest months, Mount Coffee’s output can fall by more than half, creating a shortfall that has historically been addressed through expensive HFO- and diesel-fired generation.
The Côte d’Ivoire–Liberia–Sierra Leone–Guinea (CLSG) Interconnector has provided an important boost to Liberia’s electricity supply. The roughly 1,363-kilometer, 225-kV transmission backbone, developed under the West African Power Pool (WAPP), allows Liberia to import electricity from Côte d’Ivoire’s larger and more diversified generation base. Imports increased from 27 MW in 2023 to nearly 50 MW in 2024.
However, cross-border electricity dependence also carries risks, including currency and tariff exposure, reliance on a neighboring country’s available surplus and transmission losses over long distances. Regional interconnection is therefore necessary infrastructure, but it cannot by itself provide sufficient protection against Liberia’s dry-season generation deficit.
On the demand side, the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) now serves 355,803 registered customers, up from roughly 30,000 in the mid-2010s. This growth has been driven by grid expansion supported by the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s Liberia Compact, urban densification around Monrovia and the Rural and Renewable Energy Agency (RREA)-led deployment of off-grid solar mini-grids. Electricity consumption is projected to increase from 374 million kWh in 2025 to 953 million kWh in 2028—a 154.7 percent increase.
Despite that growth, national electrification stood at only 34.9 percent in 2024, among the lowest rates in West Africa. This means Liberia faces both a significant development challenge and a substantial untapped market for new generation, including distributed solar.
Recent Solar Developments: A New Era Takes Shape
Liberia’s energy transition has already begun. In 2026, the country inaugurated its first utility-scale solar plant—a 20 MW facility at Mount Coffee developed under the World Bank’s Regional Emergency Solar Power Intervention Project (RESPITE).
An additional US$57 million has reportedly been secured to expand the plant to 30 MW and integrate a 12 MW battery-storage system, enabling more reliable nighttime and peak-demand supply. At the same time, 22 MW of previously lost capacity at Mount Coffee has been restored, returning the hydropower plant to its full 88 MW capacity, with plans for an additional 42 MW in new turbines. Together, these investments could raise Liberia’s total generation capacity toward 150 MW.
The Economics Have Fundamentally Shifted
A decade ago, utility-scale solar paired with battery storage was prohibitively expensive for a market such as Liberia. That calculation has changed considerably.
Solar module prices have fallen substantially, while battery-storage economics have also improved. The combination means solar-plus-storage systems can increasingly compete with HFO- and diesel-fired generation on a levelized-cost basis, particularly when the volatility and foreign-exchange burden associated with imported fuel are taken into account.
For Liberia, the significance is greatest during the dry season. A properly sized solar-plus-storage system could provide electricity precisely when hydropower production is weakest, helping smooth the seasonal generation curve without requiring the country to finance thermal capacity that may sit underutilized for much of the year.
Regional Success Stories: Lessons for Liberia
West Africa is experiencing a rapid expansion of solar power, with mid-sized solar plants ranging from 10 MW to 100 MW increasingly being paired with battery storage to strengthen electricity supply.
Senegal operates a 21 MW solar facility supporting water infrastructure, while Togo has expanded its Blitta solar park from 50 MW to 70 MW with battery storage and is working toward 100 MW. Benin has committed €45 million to add 50 MW of solar capacity as part of its renewable-energy ambitions.
Côte d’Ivoire is developing multiple utility-scale solar projects, including tenders for 100 MWp installations paired with 33 MWh of storage. Ghana has emerged as a regional leader in competitively procured utility-scale solar Independent Power Producer (IPP) projects.
Nigeria and Ghana have also issued hundreds of licenses for mini-grids and embedded solar projects, demonstrating how regulatory clarity can help accelerate private-sector investment.
Beyond solar, initiatives such as Angola’s US$1 billion Sun Africa project and Sierra Leone’s LNG-to-power partnership demonstrate how blended public-private financing can mobilize major investments in African energy markets facing challenges similar to Liberia’s.
The common thread is clear: bankable off-take agreements, transparent tariffs and blended financing mechanisms can help reduce early investment risks and attract international capital.
The Environmental Case
Solar power produces no emissions during operation and can reduce Liberia’s dependence on imported fossil fuels, lowering local air pollution as well as the environmental risks associated with fuel transportation and storage.
The expansion of solar power could also support Liberia’s National Energy Compact target of increasing renewable energy’s share from 67 percent to 75 percent. Importantly, solar can complement existing hydropower without requiring additional dams or further disruption of river systems.
Policy Measures to Accelerate Solar Investment
To accelerate the expansion of solar power, the Government of Liberia should work closely with the Liberia Electricity Corporation, the Rural and Renewable Energy Agency and international partners to establish a comprehensive policy framework.
Fiscal Incentives
The Government should consider tax and duty incentives, including waivers on import duties and VAT for solar and storage equipment, corporate tax holidays and accelerated depreciation schedules. Such measures could reduce upfront investment costs and make renewable-energy projects more attractive to developers.
De-Risking Private Investment
Liberia should engage international development-finance institutions, including the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and the African Development Bank, to help reduce investment risks.
Such institutions could provide financing, guarantees or other forms of support that strengthen confidence in the Liberia Electricity Corporation’s obligations under Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs).
Competitive Procurement
Liberia should establish a transparent and bankable procurement framework for Independent Power Producers, including standardized PPAs modeled on successful approaches elsewhere in Africa.
Currency-convertibility guarantees could also help address foreign-exchange risks that may otherwise discourage investors.
Streamlining Approvals
Permitting should be simplified through a “one-stop shop” within the Ministry of Mines and Energy. The system could consolidate land-use approvals, environmental reviews and grid-interconnection requirements into a coordinated process, reducing delays that can discourage investment.
Mobilizing Local and International Finance
Liberia should pursue blended-finance and domestic-financing mechanisms, including partial credit guarantees for Liberian banks and the possible issuance of green or diaspora bonds dedicated to renewable-energy projects.
These instruments could help mobilize both domestic and international capital for Liberia’s energy transition.
Strengthening Regional Cooperation
Liberia should deepen coordination with the West African Power Pool and the CLSG interconnection project, ensuring that regional electricity imports and domestic solar development complement one another rather than compete.
Regional interconnection should remain an important component of Liberia’s energy strategy, but it should be combined with domestic generation diversification.
Expanding Distributed Solar
The Government should also accelerate distributed renewable-energy development by expanding RREA’s mini-grid programs and working toward the National Energy Compact’s target of connecting 100,000 additional households to electricity each year.
Building Local Technical Capacity
Finally, Liberia must invest in local technical capacity. Training Liberian technicians in solar-system design, installation and maintenance would ensure that the country captures long-term employment benefits while developing the expertise necessary to sustain its renewable-energy infrastructure.
Conclusion
Liberia’s dry-season power deficit is not an intractable problem. It is a predictable seasonal gap that modern solar-plus-storage technology can increasingly help close at competitive cost.
The CLSG interconnector has demonstrated the value of regional cooperation, but long-term energy security requires Liberia to diversify beyond hydropower and imported electricity.
With declining technology costs, a rapidly expanding customer base, emerging domestic solar projects and successful regional examples, Liberia has both the rationale and the roadmap for a more resilient electricity system.
What remains is policy clarity, effective implementation and decisive action.
Liberia must turn its abundant sunlight into reliable, year-round electricity capable of powering households, businesses and the next phase of national economic growth.
About the Author
Engr. Dehyu C. Zangar is an electrical engineer with eight years of experience designing and optimizing advanced power systems. He holds a master’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering, specializing in power systems and automation. He lectures at the University of Liberia, Faith University College and Grand Bassa University, where he promotes advanced energy knowledge and community-centered solutions. His work focuses on improving electricity availability, strengthening community partnerships and raising public awareness in support of sustainable national energy development.
