China-Built Power Projects in Africa

From hydropower to solar, wind, gas and transmission: a project-level record of Chinese participation in Africa's power sector, with contractor, financier, capacity and status for every entry.

Compiled: Projects: Countries: Period:
Scope

1. Geography: installed capacity by country

Darker shading means more installed capacity with Chinese participation. Click a country to filter the table below. Red dots mark small island states with no land area on the map (Mauritius, Seychelles, Cabo Verde, Sao Tome and Principe, Comoros).

2. Structure: technology, region and country

Hydropower has long dominated. Including planned and suspended projects sharply raises the share of coal and solar - switch the scope above to see the structure of projects actually built.

Technology mix (by capacity)

Unit: MW

Technology mix (by project count)

Unit: projects

Top 18 countries by capacity

MW, sorted descending

Top 20 individual projects by capacity

MW; colour indicates technology

Capacity by region and technology

Unit: MW

Mode of Chinese participation

By project count; "EPC contract" means China mainly builds rather than funds

Capacity by project status

MW; always based on all catalogued projects

Top 18 countries by project count

Unit: projects

3. Timeline: from concessional-loan mega-hydro to "small and beautiful" renewables

Bars show projects commissioned or due that year; the line shows the corresponding capacity. The 2010s were the mega-hydro era; after 2020 solar and wind projects multiplied while average unit size fell.

Capacity vs disclosed amount

Log-log scale: capacity (MW) on the x-axis, disclosed amount (USD million) on the y-axis

Capacity by Chinese funding channel

By main Chinese funding channel; MW

4. Project database (searchable)

Filter by country, technology, status or region; click a column header to sort. The source link in each row opens the page used for verification. The table follows the scope selected above.

Project ↕ Country ↕ Technology ↕ Capacity (MW) ↕ Status ↕ Year ↕ Chinese companies involved Finance / mode Amount (USD m) ↕ Notes & source

5. Findings and data notes