GameChange Energy’s Director of Business Development for Sub-Saharan Africa, Samantha Futcher, and Director for Southern Africa, Russ Bowden, spoke to AFSIA at Intersolar Europe 2026 in Munich.
When GameChange Solar was founded in 2012, it had a single product focus: solar tracker and fixed-tilt mounting systems for utility-scale power plants. Over the years that followed, it grew into one of the world’s leading tracker companies, with installations across six continents and more than 63 GW deployed. By 2026, however, a name that began with “Solar” could no longer tell the whole story. At Intersolar Europe in Munich this June, the company’s African leadership team sat down to explain what has changed, and why Africa sits at the centre of their ambitions.
From solar to energy
On 1 June 2026, GameChange Energy formally consolidated its solar tracker, transformer, eBOS, and remote robotic asset monitoring divisions under a single unified brand. The new name reflected a structural transformation building for several years. GameChange Energy launched in 2023 as a transformer business, becoming parent company to GameChange Solar and GameChange BOS, before entering the eBOS market in 2025. Earlier in 2026, the acquisition of Terrasmart’s eBOS division added 14 GW of proven track record and a domestic manufacturing facility in the US state of Michigan.
Samantha Futcher, Director of Business Development for Sub-Saharan Africa, explained the significance: “GameChange has recently changed from GameChange Solar to GameChange Energy. This stems from the fact that whilst our focus is primarily on solar, in fixed tilt and tracker structures, our business has expanded to both transformer and eBOS markets, together with surveillance.”
That surveillance dimension points to another recent development. In May 2026, the company announced a partnership with Raptor Maps, pairing its Genius Vision tracker monitoring software with Raptor Maps’ Sentry autonomous drone inspection platform, creating a continuous feedback loop between tracker performance and on-site inspection data, all without dispatching a technician. The rationale is stark: a recent report found that the global solar industry lost US$10 billion to asset underperformance in 2024 alone. At Intersolar, a Raptor Maps representative was present to bring this technology directly to GameChange Energy’s African partners.
Ranked number one in Africa
Just days after the rebrand, GameChange Energy announced it had been ranked the world’s second-largest solar tracker company by Wood Mackenzie, and the number one tracker company in Africa and South Africa.
For Futcher, the recognition carries weight that goes beyond the headline. “It’s a very exciting announcement we’re happy to share with our partners. For our customers, what it should show is proof of resilient, reliable products that are bankable and strengthen the confidence that they have in the brand.”
Bankability matters enormously in African project finance. A top ranking from an independent analyst such as Wood Mackenzie provides the kind of third-party validation that makes conversations at financial close considerably easier.
A market of complexity
The ranking reflects years of work on the ground. Russ Bowden, who has spent more than five years building GameChange Energy’s Southern African business, was candid about what that has involved.
According to AFSIA’s Africa Solar Outlook 2026, Africa added at least 2.4 GW of new solar capacity in 2025, with total tracked operational capacity reaching 23.4 GW, a 26% year-on-year increase. But this growth has not been straightforward. South Africa’s market has shifted dramatically, from government-led REIPPPP tenders to a liberalising private sector. That shift has brought its own complications. Curtailment has risen sharply in 2026, with some IPPs reporting revenues running around 9% below budget. Eskom’s continued ownership of transmission infrastructure remains a structural constraint, and no new grid connection capacity is available in the Northern, Eastern, and Western Cape until after 2027.
Import policy adds a further layer of uncertainty. Many developers have relied on staged consignment arrangements to import equipment duty-free. That arrangement is now under active review. South Africa’s International Trade Administration Commission has released preliminary determinations that could see trackers, solar panels, inverters, and other components excluded from the staged consignment policy. Bowden was direct: “There’s talk about scrapping that allowance which would immediately make a lot of projects not reach financial close, and that’s a big challenge among IPPs.”
Built for local conditions
GameChange Energy‘s response to these pressures has been to build deep roots in the markets it serves. The company invested in South African manufacturing to meet the REIPPPP’s demanding local content requirements, achieving 90% local content for mounting structures across 1.1 GW of delivered projects. Bowden believes GameChange Energy is the only international company to have manufactured at that scale within South Africa, and the commitment extends beyond regulatory obligation. “It’s an important thing for us, and a lot of IPPs that don’t necessarily need the local content would welcome it in terms of generating jobs in the country.”
Equally important is the depth of the team on the ground. “The team understands the local market and the local conditions. We have engineers, a logistics team, and I think we are probably one of the only international tracker companies who have the people on the ground that we have. The support that we offer our clients is tantamount to ensuring projects are delivered on time and executed to their requirements.”
Solar Insights: Cape Town, 19 August
GameChange Energy is bringing that expertise directly to clients at its Solar Insights event in Cape Town on 19 August 2026, a full day of technical workshops on design, engineering, and long-term performance of utility-scale solar projects. Those wishing to attend can contact Samantha Futcher or Russ Bowden directly for an invitation.
