4 - Solar Technologies and the Greening of Afro-Sino Futures

Renewable energy and green technologies represent an invigorated arc in the narrative of contemporary Afro-Sino collaborations. For instance, environmentally responsible economic growth was emphasized in key conversations between heads of states during the 2024 Forum on China- Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). The Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, described green energy as crucial to modernization in the Global South and outlined 30 new projects in Africa, while the Ghanaian president, Nana Akufo-Addo, described the green sector as a “moral imperative and economic opportunity” for Africa and China.  

Such rhetoric and new commitments aside, Chinese (non-state) companies have long exported hydro, solar, and wind energy technology to Africa, and African traders have continually sourced day-to-day energy solutions from all over China over the last two decades. In this paper, we examine how a number of Afro-Sino collaborations around solar energy and technology manifest particular green futures for the two regions. We draw on ethnographic work in China and Ghana alongside an analysis of government documents and media reporting on the most recent FOCAC to zoom in on three sets of actors: i) states negotiating solar projects with goals to transform energy infrastructure, ii) transnational entrepreneurs facilitating relatively large scale manufacturing and trading of solar products, and ii) small scale traders catering to consumers’ everyday energy needs. We show how these actors navigate increasingly complex geopolitical, technological, market, labor, and environmental conditions, and we interrogate how a South-South imaginary might (re)produce and complicate possible green futures for Africa, China, and the planet at large.

Paper co-authored with: Lizhen Zhao, University of Massachusetts, Amherst