How China’s green tech is undercutting Trump’s ‘drill, baby, drill’ oil strategy in Africa

The useful part

Trump's 'drill, baby, drill' oil strategy in Africa | South China Morning Post Advertisement China-Africa relations China Diplomacy. "Africa's solar revolution is here," said Sonia Dunlop, CEO of the Global Solar Council (GSC). Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East had delivered "two major fossil fuel supply shocks in four years" that "exposed the brutal cost of energy dependence", Dunlop noted.

How it works

• For African countries working out which way to go, the deciding factor is cost and, with China's advances in solar generation and battery technologies making acquisitions cheaper, a consensus is coalescing...
• Cheap solar and improved battery storage had enabled the rapid replacement of fossil fuels with solar power across Africa, she said.
• Africa's solar additions surged a record 54 per cent in 2025, according to the GSC, adding as much as 4.5 gigawatts in new photovoltaic power.
• With the US-Israel war on Iran causing the biggest disruption in oil and gas supply in history, this year's installations are expected to set another record.
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Details worth keeping

In China, the national strategy is to "walk towards the light". Two energy behemoths, two contrasting approaches to energy. "Growth is spreading to new markets across the continent, and rooftop and distributed systems are putting power directly into the hands of households and businesses." 09:10 Can the Middle East war turbocharge China's global EV ambitions?

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