Africa's solar boom is so fast that official statistics can't keep up
Africa's solar revolution is vast and speedy
In Zimbabwe, a solar farm has no conventional site at all — just rows of panels on the rooftops of two tobacco warehouses in Harare, wired to supply a nearby factory. The Economist reports that such projects are spreading across Africa and Asia, and that Zimbabwe's example suggests official figures probably understate how large and how quick the continent's solar revolution really is.
If at first you cannot find the new power project in an industrial area of Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, try looking up.
- sheepscreek
The current geopolitical climate is becoming a blessing for Africa, and much of the developing world. With China's ties with the US all but severed, it is incentivized to redirect most of its resources into building Africa. That in turn will reinvigorate the Chinese economy.
If Africa has abundance of electricity, they can become consumers of Chinese EVs, and more.
- hunglee2
Decentralised power generation is the future for Africa, many of whose countries cannot rely on central government to efficiently operate a national grid. I am thinking primarily of South Africa, where many businesses and (rich enough) home owners have back up diesel generators to fill in in moments of load shedding. Solar of course is the most decentralised form of power of all. Positive stuff for Africa. This is where China overcapacity really does lead to more equitable power (literally) distribution, so congrats to them also
- aorth
We moved to a new house earlier this year in Kenya and it has solar. Very convenient, as there are electricity outages every few weeks for various reasons (usually trees falling on power lines), not to mention the cost savings. We are basically on the equator so we have sun for 12 hours in theory.
- msy
There are parallels here to the way much of Africa fixed land-lines phones and went straight to mobile. Which has also been powered by Chinese hardware.
- happyPersonR
With EVs providing transportation, lots of countries not just in Africa, are seeing rapid deployment of solar and batteries.
It’s amazing :)
Great for everyone and will change everything if allowed to continue