From west Africa’s Sierra Leone and Liberia to Kiribati and Tonga in the Pacific, the impact from China’s rising dominance as the world’s first significant “electrostate” is beginning to be felt.
Chinese solar panel exports reached 236GW in 2024, more than triple the volume of 2019, and should hit a new record high again this year, according to data from French bank Natixis and Ember Research, a UK think-tank. In Africa, imports of Chinese-made solar panels in the year to the end of June topped 15GW, an increase of 60 per cent from the prior 12 months, Ember data also showed.
The statistics, however, highlight just one of a panoply of clean-technology industries now dominated by China.