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China’s solar manufacturing slowdown could help Africa’s rise

September 08, 2025

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For years, African countries have benefited from China’s solar panel overproduction, which drove prices down as manufacturers battled for global market share. But that era may be coming to an end. China’s government is now ordering solar giants to reduce output, after some of the industry’s biggest players reported billions of dollars in losses.

  • For Africa, the timing could not be better. With several African solar manufacturing plants in development, China’s policy shift may provide the spark needed to boost a sector that is already gaining momentum.

  • Solar demand in Africa has quadrupled in the past five years, with imports from China set to hit record highs this year. If Chinese import prices now rise, African manufacturers could become more competitive and soak up demand.

  • Our take: Local solar manufacturing needs to aggregate demand to compete with Chinese products… Read more (2 min)

The energy transition in Africa is moving faster than anticipated, and with it come challenges. Workers in the fossil-fuel sector will need re-skilling, while the renewables industry requires a pipeline of skilled talent. Few countries are preparing for this shift. South Africa became one last week by launching a Just Energy Transition Skills Desk to ready its workforce.

  • This comes at a time when experts project the renewable energy sector’s workforce to grow tenfold by 2030. Yet the sector is struggling to access talent in emerging fields such as battery storage and grid integration

  • Projects are scaling up fast, moving from megawatts to gigawatts. Egypt is leading in mega projects, while South Africa and other major African economies are following suit.

  • Our take: Partnerships with the private sector are needed so that training aligns with real labour market demand… Read more (2 min)

Lithium-ion battery average prices in Kenya saw a 10.71% drop to Ksh 148,667 in the past month, according to industry data analysed by Renewables Rising. Egypt registered a 0.8% drop in battery prices in the same month. Of the four countries we track regularly, South Africa is the only one that registered a marginal increase in battery prices in this period.

  • The drop in battery prices in both Kenya and Egypt has been identified by insiders as being driven by discount offered by retailers. The policy environment and the currency markets have been mostly stable.

  • Renewables Rising tracks and analyses monthly data on key energy products—solar panels, inverters, solar home systems, and lithium-ion batteries—across representative countries in Africa.

  • Our take: The continent must brace for higher prices while accelerating local manufacturing efforts to mitigate external shocks… Read more (2 min)

Studio Santi’s electrical engineers secure connections for two solar farms to the Tagamenda substation in Tanzania

Events

🗓️ Register for the Energy Forum for Africa event  (Sep 10)

🗓️ Attend the 2025 International Investment Conference (Sep 23)

🗓️ Be at South Africa’s Energy Week 2025 event  (Sep 29)

Jobs 

👷🏻‍♀️ Apply for Terra Firma Solutions’ Principal Engineer role (South Africa)

👷🏻‍♂️ Lead Scatec Solar’s technical development operations (Egypt)

⚙️ Join Sun King as a Senior Service Engineer (Madagascar)

🦺 Become Engie’s Head of Human Resources (Tanzania)

Various

⚡ Leading Chinese solar panel makers report losses in H1 2025

🔌 Nigerian firm rolls out solar kiosk training for 40,000 young people

🔋 Kenya targets 20,000MW of nuclear power by 2040 for its energy sector

Seen on LinkedIn 

Bukenya Arafat, Solar PV Projects Engineer at Aptech Africa, says, “The term 'bankable project' is more than a buzzword — it’s the difference between attracting investment and being overlooked.”