Thanks to Widely Available Solar Panels & Batteries at More Affordable Price Points, African Countries Are Finally Going Solar!

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About a year ago, I wrote an article titled “Is There Really “Structural Overcapacity” of EVs & Solar that “the World Cannot Absorb”?” That was because everywhere you go, you would bump into an article talking about how China (Chinese companies) are massively over-producing solar panels, lithium-ion batteries, and electric vehicles that the world cannot absorb. This led me to ask that question. 

We still have not achieved universal access to electricity on the African continent. A lot of countries are yet to bring access to electricity to more than 50% of their citizens. We always hear that more than 600 million people in Africa don’t have access to electricity, and that close to a billion don’t have access to clean cooking! For how long do these matters have to be the subject of conference after conference with little progress towards the set targets? Firm action plans backed by tangible funding (not promises) need to be expedited ASAP.

To urgently address this dire situation, a combination of mini, small, medium, large, and very large distributed renewable solutions backed by battery storage could play a key role in addressing these longstanding issues. These could be applied at the utility-scale, commercial and industrial, urban residential, rural, and off-grid/mini-grid level. With the right business models and funding structures, hundreds of GW and GWh of capacity can be installed cumulatively across multiple African countries in quick time depending on each individual country, city, town, or village’s needs. Distributed mini grids plus energy-as-a-service battery rentals for productive use of energy could help transform the lives of millions in many rural parts in a lot of countries on the African continent, and we have all the tech we need in the world right now. It’s now just about getting action items actually “actioned.”

With over 600 million people without access to electricity in Africa, we cannot have overcapacity, as these people need to be connected. On top of this, there are hundreds of millions more in urban centres on the African continent that are connected and do have access to electricity but still face incessant power cuts due to aging and inadequate transmission and distribution infrastructure as well as severe electricity generation shortfalls leading to massive electricity rationing.

As discussed above, solar has a huge role to play to address these challenges. Despite being one of the best places for solar PV, Africa as a whole still has less than 2% of the world’s solar generation. Which is pretty wild! There is some good news! It looks like the market is moving to address this huge electricity challenge organically thanks to the improving unit economics of going solar.

According to a new report from Ember, several countries on the African continent are now going solar in a big way! Here are some extracts from the report showing that the first evidence of a take-off in solar in Africa is now here:

• The last 12 months saw a big rise in Africa’s solar panel imports. Imports from China rose 60% in the last 12 months to 15,032 MW. Over the last two years, the imports of solar panels outside of South Africa have nearly tripled from 3,734 MW to 11,248 MW.
• The rise happened across Africa. 20 countries set a new record for the imports of solar panels in the 12 months to June 2025. 25 countries imported at least 100 MW, up from 15 countries 12 months before.
• These solar panels will provide a lot of electricity. The solar panels imported into Sierra Leone in the last 12 months, if installed, would generate electricity equivalent to 61% of the total reported 2023 electricity generation, significantly adding to electricity supply. They would add electricity equivalent to over 5% to total reported electricity generation in 16 countries.
• Solar panel imports will reduce fuel imports. The savings from avoiding diesel can repay the cost of a solar panel within six months in Nigeria, and even less in other countries. In nine of the top ten solar panel importers, the import value of refined petroleum eclipses the import value of solar panels by a factor of between 30 to 107.
• The growth rate in some countries was very high. Algeria rose 33-fold in the 12 months to June 2025, compared to the previous 12 months. Zambia rose eightfold, Botswana sevenfold, Sudan sixfold, and Liberia, DRC, Benin, Angola and Ethiopia all more than tripled.
• South Africa remained the biggest solar importer in the 12 months to June 2025. Nigeria was second, overtaking Egypt in the last 12 months, and Algeria rose to third place.
• If all solar panels imported into Sierra Leone in the last 12 months alone were installed, they would be able to generate electricity equivalent to 61% of reported electricity generation in 2023, the latest available data. 

So, with China producing over 80% of the world’s solar panels and making them widely available on the global market, Africa is finally going solar thanks to these widely available solar panels and lithium-ion batteries. Most importantly, these solar panels and lithium-ion batteries are now more affordable. That means more people, businesses, and governments are now able to install more solar than before. For example, about 10 years ago, one would need to spend about $60,000 on a decently sized residential solar installation with lead-acid batteries for a typical upmarket home, whereas nowadays you can get the same size system capacity but now with longer-lasting lithium-ion batteries for about $6,000. The business case for going solar is now more viable for most, hence the new rush to go solar. 

This dramatic decline in the prices of solar panels and batteries over the past 10 years has been well documented on CleanTechnica before. The sheer scale of the ecosystem and supply chain enabling Chinese firms to produce panels and batteries powering up China’s rapid adoption of solar as well as supply global markets has been one of the main drivers contributing to record-low solar panel prices as well as their availability on the global market, including in Africa markets. 10 years ago, solar panels were not widely available on demand in many African countries in volumes to propel the level of growth we are starting to see now. Nowadays you can just walk into a wholesaler and get as many panels and batteries as you want and get going on your installation the same day. No more waiting 3 months for a shipment of panels and the accompanying balance of equipment needed for the installation. Besides their availability, most people were not even looking to go solar because the prices of panels and batteries were so prohibitive to the majority. With over 600 million people still to be connected and hundreds of millions more that are connected but have to deal with weak and intermittent grids daily, thanks to China’s “overcapacity,” there is finally some hope that a huge dent will be placed in this giant electricity access problem.