Africa & Middle East
Energy modelling for Africa and the Middle East
From rural mini-grids in Sub-Saharan Africa to gigawatt utility-scale solar in the Gulf. HOMER's origins are in African village power — its capabilities now span the full range of African and Middle Eastern energy infrastructure.
HOMER's African heritage
HOMER was developed at the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) specifically for village power applications — the small, isolated microgrids that serve communities without grid connection. African village power projects were among the first real-world deployments. Over 25 years and thousands of projects, HOMER has become the named modelling standard in major mini-grid programmes across Sub-Saharan Africa, from the World Bank's ESMAP frameworks to bilateral donor programmes from USAID, GIZ, the UK FCDO, and Agence Française de Développement.
That heritage is not just history. It means HOMER has component models, load profile libraries, and dispatch strategies that were built for African conditions — variable fuel supply, productive use loads, Tier 1–5 customer load characterisation, and the economic frameworks that mini-grid project finance requires.
Sub-Saharan African mini-grids — HOMER Pro
The mini-grid developer workflow — feasibility, tender preparation, financial close, and operational optimisation — maps directly onto HOMER Pro's capabilities. Results-Based Financing (RBF) frameworks and connection grant programmes, including the World Bank ESMAP "Mini Grids for Half a Billion People" initiative and the AfDB Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA), require project feasibility models that meet international standards. HOMER produces those models.
Tier 1–5 customer load profile modelling per the ESMAP multi-tier framework is built into HOMER's load characterisation. Productive use loads — agri-processing, water pumping, cold storage — are native to HOMER's load model. Mobile money payment system economics and demand-based pricing can be incorporated through HOMER's demand charge and time-of-use tariff structures.
Established mini-grid developers including Husk Power Systems, PowerGen Renewable Energy, ENGIE Energy Access, and Nuru use energy modelling at every stage of their project pipeline. HOMER's output format is accepted by the International Finance Corporation, World Bank, and major DFIs for project finance purposes.
African utility-scale and C&I — HOMER Grid and Front
South Africa's C&I solar-plus-storage market has expanded dramatically in response to Eskom load-shedding. Behind-the-meter generation for commercial and industrial sites — previously constrained by embedded generation rules — is now supported by NERSA's simplified licensing and the revised Schedule 2 threshold. HOMER Grid models the South African C&I economics, including Time-of-Use tariffs across Eskom and municipal tariff structures.
South Africa's REIPPPP (Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme), RMIPPPP, and BESIPPPP procurement rounds have produced a large IPP sector. HOMER Front is used by South African IPPs and their EPCs for pre-bid feasibility modelling. Nigeria's C&I solar market — driven by high diesel costs and unreliable grid supply — is a major growth area, with both on-grid C&I and off-grid commercial models expanding. Egyptian and Moroccan utility-scale solar, East African geothermal-hybrid systems (KenGen, EthioElectric), and the Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire utility-scale renewables markets are all active HOMER deployment contexts.
Middle East utility-scale — HOMER Front
The Gulf states are executing the world's fastest utility-scale renewable buildout. The UAE's Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park (5 GW when complete) and Noor Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia's PIF renewables programme — including Sudair (1.5 GW) and the NEOM green hydrogen project — and Oman's Hyport Duqm and Manah I and II represent a generation of projects where HOMER Front provides the asset-level optimisation modelling that project developers, independent engineers, and their lenders require.
Green hydrogen is an emerging HOMER use case in the region. Electrolyser-renewable-storage combinations — where HOMER models the optimal curtailment and electrolyser dispatch — are central to the Saudi NEOM and Oman Hyport feasibility models. Desalination-energy nexus modelling — where desalination plant load shapes define the generation dispatch profile — is a specific capability relevant to Gulf coastal projects.
Jordan's Al Husainiyah project, Egypt's Benban solar park and Gabal El Asfar wind farm, and Morocco's Noor complex represent the broader MENA utility solar landscape where HOMER is an established tool.
Country pages
Selected projects
USAID Power Africa mini-grid cluster
HOMER Pro was used across a cluster of 22 village power mini-grids in rural Nigeria under a USAID Power Africa Results-Based Financing grant. Load profiles were built using the ESMAP Tier 3 framework and productive use load projections.
Commercial solar-BESS, Gauteng
An EPC modelled a 2.5 MW / 5 MWh rooftop solar-BESS system for a cold chain logistics operator in Gauteng. HOMER Grid confirmed load-shedding resilience across all stages and a 7.5-year payback under Eskom Megaflex tariffs.
Solar-BESS dispatch optimisation, Abu Dhabi
A utility-scale developer used HOMER Front to optimise the dispatch strategy for a 200 MW solar-plus-storage asset in Abu Dhabi, modelling DEWA-equivalent capacity market and ancillary service revenue streams.
Partnerships with development agencies
HOMER's acceptance in donor-funded projects is a unique competitive advantage. The following agencies use or accept HOMER-based feasibility studies:
Mini-grid developer toolkit
Contact us to request templates and sample models.
Ready to model your Africa or Middle East project?
Whether you're designing a village mini-grid in Sub-Saharan Africa, a C&I solar system in South Africa, or a utility-scale project in the Gulf, HOMER gives you internationally accepted techno-economic analysis.