A rapid expansion in solar power is taking place across Africa due to imports from China.
Energy think-tank Ember says African imports have risen by 60 per cent over the past year and driven an increase from 9,379 megawatts to 15,032MW.
Extremely limited production capacity in Africa has led to the mass importation of solar panels, with 20 countries setting a record in the year to June.
Ember says this could have a major impact on some of the poorest countries on Earth. For example, those going into Sierra Leone over the past year, when connected, could provide the equivalent of 61 per cent of the total electricity that was produced in 2023.
Solar has helped improve lives in rural schools and hospitals, and through street lighting, water pumping and mini-grids, as well as pay-as-you go installed in homes across Africa over the past 20 years, but only on a small scale.
That is changing - the last time imports surged was in 2023 when the power crisis hit its peak in South Africa, but now much of the pick-up has happened outside the continent’s biggest economy. Imports of solar panels have tripled away from South Africa, rising from 3,734MW in the year leading to June 2023 to 11,248MW in the 12 months to June 2025.
The situation remains that South Africa and Egypt are the only countries with installed solar capacity measured in gigawatts rather than megawatts, but in areas which have relied on diesel-fuelled generators, switching to solar could be a cost-effective alternative, with the payback period for the panels estimated at less than six months.
The savings from avoiding diesel can repay the cost of a solar panel within six months in countries such as Nigeria, which has become the second-biggest solar panel importer in the past year.
The World Bank has said $1327bn in mini-grid investments is needed by 2030, which would provide electricity access for 490 million people – twice the population of Nigeria.
UN secretary-general António Guterres has described Africa as home to 60 per cent of the “world’s best solar resources”, which can play a vital role in limiting damage to the planet from greenhouse gas emissions produced by burning dirty fuels.
“You can deliver solar panels to the most remote village on earth. Solar and wind can be deployed faster, cheaper and more flexibly than fossil fuels ever could,” he said.
China currently produces 80 per cent of the world’s solar panels, and Africa depends heavily on them, though progress has been made in production in Morocco and, on a smaller scale, in Nigeria and Egypt, with three gigawatt-scale projects on the horizon.
China’s exports of electric vehicles, solar panels, batteries and other carbon-cutting technology has been climbing for years and exports hit a record in August, with $20 billion in products shipped globally. China supplies around 60 per cent of the world’s wind turbines, 70pc of its EVs and 75pc of its batteries, all at a lower financial cost than the west.
