Category: Energy>Solar Power

Chinese Companies Power Ethiopia’s Bid to Become Solar Manufacturing Hub

Three Chinese companies are pouring more than half a billion dollars into Ethiopia’s nascent solar manufacturing sector, underscoring Beijing’s growing role in shaping Africa’s clean energy future. Shanghai-listed CSI Solar, majority-owned by Canadian Solar Inc., plans to invest $250 ...

China’s Manufacturing Might Keep Africa Tied to Its Solar Supply Chain

China’s manufacturing dominance remains tightly bound to Africa’s struggle for energy access. The continent holds the raw materials essential for producing renewable energy technologies, yet its factories lack the scale and efficiency to compete with China’s vast industrial base.  As ...

Nigeria Moves to Build Solar Manufacturing Industry, But Reliance on China is Inevitable

Nigeria imported Chinese solar panels last year with a combined capacity of 1,721 megawatts (MW)- enough to power roughly half a million homes. The country now ranks as Africa’s second-largest importer, trailing only South Africa and ahead of Morocco and ...

Zambia’s Chinese-Built Solar Plant to Keep Mines Running and Shape Its Energy Future

In a country where rolling blackouts last up to 17 hours a day, Zambia’s new $100 million Chisamba solar plant offers both hope and hard choices. The project, built by the Chinese state-run energy giant PowerChina and financed by Zambia’s national utility ZESCO, is designed ...

Why China’s “Overcapacity” Looks Very Different in the Global South

A new Financial Times article about rapid changes in Pakistan’s electricity mix highlights how the large-scale production of solar panels and batteries in China, criticized as overcapacity by G7 governments, provides Global South countries the opportunity to rapidly expand their electricity supply and decarbonize their economies.

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

2026: Africa-China Relations in a World Shaped by North-South Geopolitics

When talking about Africa–China relations, one is always moving along a sliding scale. There are myriad interactions with Chinese entities that concern only individual African countries, segueing into trends affecting the whole continent and sliding further into global dynamics shaping the developing world, of which Africa is the heart.

The Africa-China relationship is its own thing, but Africa’s fate can’t easily be separated from factors affecting the wider Global South, ...