By Ibrahim Maigari Ahmadu
Last week, I wrote about what makes a solar project a climate asset and tried to simplify a subject that is often buried under technical jargon.
Since then, I have received many questions from solar developers, businesses and individuals asking:
“How can I earn carbon credits from my solar investment?”
I also had the opportunity to deliver lectures in two locations in Abuja on climate finance and its opportunities for Africa, and this question came up repeatedly.
So, let’s simplify it.
Installing solar panels does not automatically make a project eligible for carbon credits.
Two solar projects can look almost identical, generate clean electricity and reduce diesel consumption, yet only one may qualify to generate carbon credits.
Why?
Because carbon credits are not simply a reward for installing renewable energy.
They represent verified emissions reductions.
To generate them, we need to establish things like:
How much emissions existed before the project?
How much electricity is actually being generated?
How much fossil-fuel use has been displaced?
How much emissions have actually been avoided?
Can these reductions be reliably measured and verified?
In simple terms:
You don’t earn carbon credits because you installed solar. You earn them by proving the climate impact created by the solar project.
And this is where Africa has a huge opportunity.
According to Ember, in 2025 Africa imported, from China alone, solar panels capable of generating over 15,000 MW of clean energy i.e about 40 million panels.
Millions of solar systems are being deployed across homes, businesses, telecom towers, farms, industries and communities. They are already creating environmental benefits.
But much of this impact is not being properly measured, documented and connected to the global climate finance ecosystem.
This is one of the problems we are working to solve at Rana54—building digital infrastructure that can help renewable energy projects generate trusted climate evidence and become verifiable climate assets.
Because the future isn’t just about producing clean energy.
It is about being able to prove the impact.
Next, I’ll simplify another important question:
How do you actually calculate the carbon reduction from a solar project?
Ibrahim is the founder of Rana54, a climate evidence infrastructure company building for Africa.
