According to the International Energy Agency, about 750 million people lived without access to electricity in 2024. Some 80% of them — 600 million people — live in Africa. This deprivation is a legacy of the colonialism imposed by imperialism.

Millions of these people, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, use wood for cooking and heat. This source produces unhealthy domestic pollution, even for those who do have access to electricity.

The Chinese companies that make solar panels have already saturated their domestic market, and the Trump administration has threatened tariffs so high they will cut off the U.S. market. Thus these companies began a major campaign to sell to African countries who need and want to expand their production of electricity.

According to Ember — a global non-profit which provides best-in-class open data on electricity generation, power sector emissions, prices and much more — solar panel imports into the African continent jumped 60% from June 2024 to June 2025. This increase set a record that could reshape electricity systems in many countries. (ember-energy.org)

Low-income countries, like Mali and Malawi, as well as large, middle income countries like Algeria, Nigeria and South Africa, are importing solar panels from China and using them in different ways.

Chad and solar panels

Consider how Chad, a country of 21 million people in an area of a half-million square miles, is using the solar panels it imports. Chad is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa, bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest and Niger to the west. It is generally considered to be within the Sahel, with parts of it in the Sahara desert.

According to the International Rescue Committee, Chad is home to 1.5 million refugees, most fleeing from the fighting in Sudan. In 2024, the U.S. had only 105,500 refugees living within its borders.

The level of access to electricity in Chad is among the lowest in the world. Only 6.4% of its population has access. Some 48% of all people in sub-Saharan Africa have access. The government of Chad is planning to raise the country’s level to 30% by 2027 and 53% by 2030. It will set up a solar park in N’Djamena, the capital, including batteries to store power for night-time access.

Once it accomplishes this for N’Djamena, Chad’s government intends to set up three hybrid stations and then take what it has learned in the capital to the rest of this country’s people. (Ecomatin.net, Dec. 13, 2024)

The few steps Chad has already taken in its electrification campaign appear to have had a positive impact.