From 2017 to 2025 China shipped Africa 58 GW of solar panels, two and a half times the 22.2 GW of solar capacity Africa's statistics counted at the end of 2025.
21.5 GW
of Chinese solar panels shipped to Africa in the 12 months to Sep 2026, +24% on the year before (Ember, from China's customs)
22.2 GW
of solar capacity counted at the end of 2025: 4.0% of Africa's electricity, against 8.8% worldwide (Ember)
16.9 GW
of utility-scale solar farms in service, and 14.3 GW under construction (Global Energy Monitor, with this page's corrections)
24.7 GW
of loose solar cells shipped in the same 12 months, more than eight times the year before; most, Ember thinks, travel on, probably to the United States
The difference is not lost at sea. Most of it, by Ember's reading, sits behind the meter, on the roofs of homes, shops, factories and mines: solar bought panel by panel by households and firms that would not wait for the grid. The big farms the trackers do count are concentrated: 63% of the utility-scale capacity in service is in South Africa, Egypt and Morocco.
Customs records to Sep 2026 and electricity to 2025 from Ember · plants from Global Energy Monitor · satellite pairs from Sentinel-2, 2017 and 2026 · register compiled 31 Oct 2026 from 64 sources, checked 31 Oct 2026
13 countriesimported half a gigawatt or more of Chinese panels in the 12 months to Sep 2026, against 4 in the 12 months to Sep 2023.2 GW or more1–2 GW0.5–1 GW0.1–0.5 GW
The boom the statistics miss
Each year since 2022 Africa has taken more panels from China than the year before, and each year the capacity it reports has grown by a fraction of what arrived.
panels shipped from Chinaloose cells shipped from China, most of them re-shipped onward, by Ember's readingsolar capacity Africa added, by its statistics
In 2025 Chinese customs recorded 18.8 GW of panels bound for Africa, four and a half times the 4.2 GW of 2022; Africa's statistics added 3.8 GW of solar capacity that year. In the first nine months of 2026 another 16.0 GW of panels arrived, and 22.1 GW of loose cells on top, which Ember reads as mostly re-shipped, probably to the United States, rather than built into panels in Africa.
Ember reckons that three-quarters of the 26 GW Africa added in 2023–2025 is distributed, on the customer's side of the meter, where national statistics seldom look: only 14 of Africa's 54 countries have official solar figures for 2025. Its estimate of what was installed in 2025, 12.0 GW, is about twice the IEA's and 2.6 times IRENA's.
Ember turns the customs records' values into watts with the month's price for each product; the records count what left China, not what was installed, and a panel can sit in a warehouse, or cross another border, before it is fixed to a roof.
Shipped against counted, country by country
Even South Africa, whose statistics try to count rooftops, received 1.4 times as many panels in 2017–2024 as it counted at the end of 2024. In Nigeria the ratio is 14 to one (3.3 GW shipped, 0.23 GW counted), in Senegal 6 to one. Ports pass some panels on to landlocked neighbours, so coastal countries' figures run high and inland ones' low; the size of the gap does not.
Every country: panels, cells, capacity counted and farms
Solar panels and cells shipped from China, by destination (MW), against the capacity counted and the farms tracked. Customs records to Sep 2026 (Ember); capacity counted at the end of 2024 (Ember, from IRENA and national statistics); farms from Global Energy Monitor.
Country
Panels, 12 months to Sep 2026
12 months before
Cells, 12 months
Panels 2017–2024
Counted, end 2024
Farms operating
Farms being built
South Africa
4,156
3,635
19
12,281
9,060
5,384
2,349
Nigeria
2,585
1,822
5,322
3,286
230
155
0
Egypt
2,457
1,692
900
5,267
2,550
4,174
5,428
DR Congo
1,988
732
17
360
30
32
248
Algeria
1,287
1,736
3
471
460
1,171
2,012
Morocco
934
961
10
3,120
950
1,033
318
Tanzania
703
424
2,287
987
10
59
150
Kenya
687
572
8,422
1,800
550
303
40
Ghana
667
246
1,412
751
190
381
300
Zambia
642
434
20
503
190
418
570
Tunisia
550
545
55
1,298
770
193
540
Mozambique
526
434
35
626
180
111
0
Sudan
514
569
11
388
190
66
0
Senegal
440
476
27
1,597
270
285
97
Cameroon
353
323
59
529
90
77
29
Zimbabwe
349
139
15
422
100
106
690
Côte d'Ivoire
255
272
32
404
40
38
224
Namibia
253
275
1
1,034
240
327
333
Mauritius
224
75
4
208
160
113
0
Mauritania
211
43
21
211
160
130
0
Guinea
158
128
25
185
20
0
0
Sierra Leone
137
138
17
189
20
11
47
Djibouti
133
61
1,402
115
0
165
0
Madagascar
130
133
4
436
60
97
120
Mali
130
126
35
223
140
173
300
Togo
124
226
56
413
70
81
25
Somalia
113
61
5
180
50
64
0
Uganda
111
80
4
372
100
121
24
Angola
94
48
56
104
360
558
25
Liberia
74
76
8
52
0
0
20
Benin
58
142
4
315
40
28
50
Ethiopia
56
75
4,349
131
20
2
0
Burkina Faso
52
103
9
336
210
219
0
Lesotho
51
1
0
3
30
33
0
Chad
46
147
4
99
0
120
60
Gabon
42
9
1
20
10
11
0
Cabo Verde
32
5
0
23
30
14
0
Botswana
28
120
2
22
70
134
0
Republic of the Congo
25
12
1
21
0
0
50
Malawi
19
66
0
227
100
104
70
The Gambia
18
17
1
76
20
23
0
Libya
16
12
0
43
10
0
115
Rwanda
15
8
1
23
20
14
0
Burundi
14
8
0
20
10
14
0
Niger
12
37
0
90
80
57
0
Seychelles
11
5
3
18
20
7
6
Central African Republic
11
1
1
50
–
48
50
Equatorial Guinea
10
3
0
6
0
5
0
South Sudan
4
6
0
22
30
48
0
Comoros
3
20
0
23
–
25
0
Guinea-Bissau
2
3
0
6
0
10
0
Eswatini
1
1
0
2
30
15
0
São Tomé and Príncipe
1
1
0
2
–
12
0
Eritrea
1
52
0
21
20
23
0
panels shipped, 2017–2024capacity counted, end 2024
Where the big farms are
1,323 utility-scale solar plants Global Energy Monitor tracks across Africa, built or planned, each drawn at its capacity. The ones in service crowd into a few places; the plans spread across the Sahara and the south-west, many of them tied to green hydrogen for export.
in serviceunder constructionapproved, before constructionannounced
Shelved and cancelled plans, 62 GW, are left off the map. Rooftop and mini-grid systems fall outside the tracker.