☀️ Africa reaches record levels for solar panel imports

• Africa's solar panel imports increased by 60 percent during the past 12 months to 15,032 MW.
• Twenty countries set new records for solar panel imports during the period, with 25 countries importing at least 100 MW.
• Many of these solar panels will directly replace diesel generation and thereby replace oil imports.

Imports reach new record level

Africa imported 15,032 MW of solar panels during the twelve months ending in June 2025, which is an increase of 60 percent compared to the previous twelve months' 9,379 MW, according to Ember. This increase occurred mainly outside South Africa.

Over the past two years, solar panel imports outside South Africa have nearly tripled from 3,734 MW in the twelve months ending June 2023 to 11,248 MW in the twelve months ending June 2025.

Monthly imports reached record levels in December 2024 and have since remained consistently high. This shows that the increase is part of a broader structural trend.

Growth occurs across the entire continent

Twenty countries set new records for solar panel imports during the twelve months ending June 2025. All these countries had imports of at least 30 MW. An additional seven countries also set records but for much smaller volumes.

The growth rate was very high in several countries. Algeria increased 33-fold during the twelve months ending June 2025 compared to the previous twelve months. Zambia increased eightfold, Botswana sevenfold, Sudan sixfold, and Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Benin, Angola and Ethiopia all more than tripled.

Twenty-five countries imported 100 MW or more, which is an increase from 15 countries twelve months earlier.

South Africa remained the largest solar importer during the twelve months ending June 2025. Nigeria was second and overtook Egypt during the past twelve months. Algeria rose to third place.

Significant increase in electricity production

The volume of solar panels imported during the past twelve months can increase electricity production considerably in many African countries.

If all solar panels imported to Sierra Leone during the past twelve months were installed, they could generate electricity equivalent to 61 percent of the reported electricity production in 2023. For Chad, it would be 49 percent.

In five other countries, total imports could add electricity equivalent to more than 10 percent of reported 2023 production: Liberia 25 percent, Somalia 15 percent, Eritrea 15 percent, Togo 11 percent and Benin 10 percent. In total, 16 countries would see an increase of at least 5 percent.

Solar panels replace oil imports

Solar panel imports constitute only a fraction of oil imports. The value of refined petroleum imports is between 30 to 107 times larger than the import value of solar panels for all the top ten solar panel importers, except Algeria.

Many of these solar panels will directly replace diesel generation and thereby replace oil imports. Research from Wood Mackenzie from 2022 estimated that 17 countries had more diesel generator capacity than power plant capacity in the grid. Nigeria had 28 GW, Ghana 10 GW and Kenya 8 GW.

During the past twelve months, solar panel imports to these countries were 1.7 GW, 0.3 GW and 0.5 GW respectively.

A solar panel can pay back imported diesel within months. In Nigeria, a 420 watt solar panel costs about 60 dollars and would produce 550 kWh per year. At the current diesel price of 0.66 dollars per liter, diesel worth 60 dollars would only produce 275 kWh of electricity. This gives a payback time of just six months.

Diesel is twice as expensive in many other African countries, which means even shorter payback time. These calculations include only the solar panel cost and exclude additional costs for fixtures, inverters and installation.

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