French telecom giant Orange SA is preparing to sharply increase the number of solar-powered telecom sites across Africa and the Middle East as rising fuel prices and energy challenges push operators to rethink how they power mobile networks.
The company’s Chief Executive Officer, Christel Heydemann, announced the plan during an Africa-France business summit in Nairobi, saying Orange intends to double its solar-powered base stations across the region.
The move comes as global fuel prices continue to rise following the conflict involving Iran, increasing operating costs for telecom companies that rely heavily on diesel generators to power network towers, especially in rural parts of Africa.
“The current crisis in the Middle East is making the business case even more sustainable,” Heydemann told Bloomberg Television during the summit.
According to Orange’s 2025 annual report, the company already operates clean-energy systems at around 15,000 telecom sites across 11 countries in Africa and the Middle East. These sites currently represent about 30 per cent of Orange’s total network infrastructure in the region.
Doubling that number would make solar energy the main power source for a large share of Orange’s telecom infrastructure across Africa. The company did not provide a timeline for the expansion but said further details would be announced soon.
The solar expansion forms part of a broader €5 billion investment plan by Orange for Africa and the Middle East over the next three years. The region has become the company’s fastest-growing market as competition intensifies in Europe and growth slows in its traditional markets.
Orange ended 2025 with around 179 million customers across 18 countries in Africa and the Middle East, most of them located in French-speaking African markets.
For telecom operators, powering mobile towers remains one of the biggest infrastructure challenges on the continent. In many rural areas, national electricity grids are unreliable or unavailable, forcing operators to depend on expensive diesel generators that are difficult to maintain and vulnerable to fuel price shocks.
Solar power is increasingly becoming a practical alternative because it lowers long-term operating costs, reduces fuel dependence, and improves network reliability in remote communities.
Orange is not the only telecom company moving in this direction. Across Africa, operators and tower companies are expanding the use of hybrid and solar-powered infrastructure as energy costs rise and environmental targets become more important.
Helios Towers has been converting diesel-powered sites to hybrid and solar systems across several African markets. Meanwhile, Safaricom and MTN Group are also increasing investments in cleaner energy solutions for their networks.
Orange has additionally started working with other operators to share infrastructure costs in difficult markets. Last year, the company partnered with Vodacom’s Congolese business to jointly deploy solar-powered telecom sites in rural areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Industry analysts say such partnerships could become more common as telecom firms look for cheaper ways to expand internet access while managing rising energy and infrastructure costs.
The push toward solar-powered telecom infrastructure also reflects a wider trend across Africa, where improving digital access increasingly depends not only on connectivity investments but also on stable and affordable energy systems.
