“a remedy for power cuts that have plagued people in the developing world for years. Thanks to swiftly falling prices of Chinese made solar panels and batteries, they now draw their power from the sun.”
“Today, solar and battery systems are deployed across a variety of businesses — auto factories and wineries, gold mines and shopping malls. And they are changing everyday life, trade and industry in Africa’s biggest economy.”
“Solar has risen from almost nothing in 2019 to roughly 10 percent of South Africa’s electricity-generating capacity.”
““a bottom-up movement” to sidestep a generations-old problem”
“Key to this shift: China’s ambition to lead the world in clean energy.”
“while the United States ramped up fossil fuel exports, China has focused on dominating renewables.”
“finding enormous new markets in Africa, where around 600 million people lack reliable electricity. Across the continent, solar imports from China rose 50 percent the first 10 months of 2025”
“South Africa was the largest destination for Chinese solar, but not the only one. Sierra Leone imported the equivalent of more than half its total current electricity-generating capacity, and Chad, nearly half.”
“State-owned Power China is also building utility-scale solar farms in South Africa, as in other developing economies.”
“China is bidding on contracts from the state-owned utility, Eskom, to add 14,000 kilometers (about 8,700 miles) of transmission lines that South Africa desperately needs to move its increasing supply of solar power around the country.”
“Chinese state-owned companies are among several international firms to bid on South Africa’s $25 billion grid expansion, vying to build the lines and then make money, in part, by operating them. Chinese firms hold similar build-operate contracts in countries including Brazil and the Philippines.”
“Installation labor is local, but the panels and batteries are almost all made in China.”
““The economic trade-offs are significant,” said Marvellous Ngundu, a researcher with the Institute of Security Studies, a think tank in Pretoria. “Jobs are created elsewhere. South Africa consumes advanced green technologies without capturing the industrial benefits.””
“Eskom’s coal-burning plants, which provide most of South Africa’s power, are old and in poor shape.”
“Power cuts have subsided recently, but it wasn’t long ago that Eskom had to turn off electricity to some areas for hours at a time — a practice called “load shedding” that hurt the economy and fed public anger.”
“what South Africans call Eskom’s “death spiral.” Well-off customers lower their bills with solar, which causes Eskom to lose money, which in turn forces Eskom to raise prices and encourages more people to install solar.”
“In the past five years alone, South Africans installed solar panels representing more than seven gigawatts, or about a tenth of the total installed capacity of 55 gigawatts. Most is privately owned.”
““As relations with the United States have become increasingly strained, Beijing has positioned itself as a reliable and sympathetic partner,” Dr. Ngundu said.”