Is Africa about to see the photo voltaic power growth it wants?

A document surge of photo voltaic panels flowing from China to nations in Africa over the previous 12 months is an indication the continent is seeing a speedy build-out of renewable power. That might assist broaden entry to low cost, clear electrical energy and scale back reliance on imported fossil fuels.

“This isn’t a large explosion but in itself,” says Dave Jones at Ember, an power assume tank within the UK. “It’s the beginning of the takeoff.”

Jones and his colleagues analysed data on Chinese language photo voltaic panel exports since 2017. There may be some photo voltaic panel manufacturing capability in Africa – however as with many of the world, Chinese language imports make up almost the entire continent’s provide.

Between June 2024 and 2025, the researchers discovered exports to Africa surged 60 per cent in comparison with the earlier 12 months, amounting to only over 15 gigawatts of energy capability imported over that interval.

Not like an earlier surge in 2022 and 2023 that was pushed largely by imports to South Africa, this upward development was unfold throughout the continent – with 20 nations seeing import information and 25 nations importing greater than 100 megawatts price of panels. “It’s not being led by one or two nations,” says Jones. “To me, that’s probably the most unbelievable a part of the story.”

South Africa was nonetheless the chief, importing a couple of quarter of the full. However different nations additionally imported a raft of panels: Nigeria was second with 1721 megawatts, adopted by Algeria with 1199 megawatts, a couple of tenth of the full. Over the previous two years, photo voltaic panel imports from China to nations in Africa – excluding South Africa –have greater than tripled.

Assuming all of the panels imported over the previous 12 months had been put in, the researchers estimate 16 nations imported sufficient to provide not less than 5 per cent of present electrical energy technology; Sierra Leone may generate greater than 60 per cent of its present electrical energy with the panels it imported alone. These photo voltaic imports may start to offset far dearer fossil gas imports.

“Africa’s simply power transition is not a future aspiration. It’s unfolding now,” says Amos Wemanya at Energy Shift Africa, an power assume tank in Kenya. “This transition has an enormous potential of reshaping how we construct resilience to the local weather chaos and drive growth.”

The surge comes partly from giant photo voltaic installations below building, however that isn’t the entire story. Jones says a number of the imports look like going to small, distributed installations on rooftops or farms, as individuals search cheaper, extra dependable sources than nationwide grids. An identical development is taking part in out in Pakistan, which noticed explosive progress in rooftop photo voltaic over the previous few years pushed by the falling price of panels.

This can be a hopeful development, given about 600 million people in Africa – almost half of the continent’s inhabitants – lack entry to dependable electrical energy. Nonetheless, photo voltaic growth on the continent nonetheless lags behind the remainder of the world. African nations have struggled to draw funding in renewable power, receiving simply two per cent of the worldwide whole in current many years, in response to the Worldwide Vitality Company. Over the previous 12 months, Pakistan alone noticed extra photo voltaic panel imports than all of Africa, regardless of having one-sixth the inhabitants.

“The true problem earlier than us is to show this momentum into lasting good points by aligning financing, coverage and native industries to make sure clear power is just not solely accessible, but in addition dependable, reasonably priced and inclusive for all Africans,” says Wemanya.

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