Africa is witnessing a historic surge in solar energy adoption, importing a record 15,032 megawatts (MW) of solar panels from China in the 12 months leading up to June 2025, a remarkable 60% increase from the previous year. This rapid growth underscores the continent’s accelerating push toward renewable energy solutions and electrification. In May alone, imports reached 1.57 gigawatts (GW), a figure that represents nearly three-quarters of the Hoover Dam’s generating capacity, signaling just how swiftly demand is rising across African markets.
Twenty African countries recorded all-time highs in solar imports during this period, reflecting a broad-based embrace of clean energy. Nigeria emerged as a standout, overtaking Egypt to claim second place with 1,721 MW of imports, while Algeria closely followed with 1,199 MW. These shifts in regional leadership illustrate how demand is spreading beyond traditional solar power strongholds and becoming more evenly distributed across the continent.
Yet behind these headline numbers lies a more complex reality. Africa’s solar boom, while impressive, is deeply intertwined with structural industrial challenges and heavy reliance on foreign suppliers. China accounts for between 85% and 90% of installations across Africa, dominating not only solar panels but also related technologies such as batteries, inverters, and storage systems. This dependency raises important questions about long-term energy security and industrial self-reliance. For many policymakers, the dilemma is stark: while nurturing domestic solar industries is vital, restricting imports at this stage could slow rural electrification, raise costs, and delay adoption. As Isah Abdullah, a solar vendor and technician in Kano, Nigeria, puts it, “Without viable local alternatives, a ban would slow rural electrification in Nigeria, raise costs, and delay adoption.”
Despite these challenges, there are signs of momentum toward building local capacity. South Africa has become a hub of manufacturing activity, with panel assembly capacity now reaching around 620 MW per year. This still falls far short of estimated domestic demand, which hovers near 3 GW annually, but progress is visible. Partnerships are beginning to emerge as well, such as JA Solar’s collaboration with ARTsolar, which is establishing a 340 MW assembly facility and creating 150 permanent jobs. Such developments demonstrate that, while Africa may still rely heavily on imports, there is a growing intent to localize parts of the value chain and capture more of the economic benefits that solar energy offers.
Still, Africa’s solar industry faces what experts call the “missing middle” in its supply chain. While some final assembly operations exist, critical upstream components such as photovoltaic (PV) cells, glass, backsheets, and encapsulant films (EVA) are almost entirely imported. This gap makes it difficult for local manufacturers to compete with global players on cost and scale. An analysis by Sustainable Energy for All highlights this structural weakness, noting that Africa lacks not just the core materials but also the auxiliary components essential for a robust solar industry.
Logistical and infrastructural challenges compound the problem. With only about 40% of roads paved in many African countries, compared to 94% in the United States, transporting solar panels and equipment is often costly and slow. Frequent power reliability issues across more than 30 African nations mean that even manufacturers looking to localize production are forced to self-generate electricity, a practice that drives up costs and erodes profit margins.
Policy interventions, while well-intentioned, also come with trade-offs. South Africa recently introduced a 10% import duty on solar panels in an effort to shield domestic producers from overwhelming foreign competition. However, industry players caution that such measures could increase project costs and slow down installations at a time when expanding renewable capacity is most urgent. This tension between protectionism and affordability is one of the defining policy challenges facing African governments as they navigate the clean energy transition.
Another critical issue is that much of the value added in the solar sector remains outside the continent. Most African facilities focus only on final assembly, which is the least profitable stage of solar panel production. Without moving further upstream into areas like PV cell manufacturing, inverter production, and storage technologies, Africa risks capturing only a fraction of the economic opportunity that solar expansion represents. Technology bottlenecks are particularly pressing no industrial-scale inverter assembly plant currently exists on the continent, forcing dependence on imports for vital power electronics. Even South Africa’s emerging assembly lines are reliant on Chinese-sourced components, underscoring the limits of current progress.
The record-breaking solar imports from China reveal a continent racing toward electrification while simultaneously highlighting the deep structural issues that must be addressed to secure long-term sustainability. Africa’s solar revolution is real and growing, but unless supply chains are strengthened, local manufacturing scaled up, and infrastructure improved, the continent will remain vulnerable to external shocks and dependent on global suppliers. The path forward will require a delicate balancing act between accelerating access to clean energy today and building the foundations of a truly self-reliant renewable energy industry tomorrow.
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