Business
Solar Panel Factories Spark Job Growth Across Africa
When South Africa successfully gave businesses incentive to manufacture solar panels, other African countries were watching. Solar panel manufactures have since popped up in Mozambique, Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya. For locals, that means new jobs and in an effort to reduce black-outs and meet growing electricity demand, the South African Department of Energy introduced the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Program (REIPPPP) in 2011. Its success kick-started significant growth in solar photovoltaic panel manufacturing plants in the country.
“It doesn’t surprise me. It’s not rocket science anymore to manufacture solar panels,” said Alexander Ochs, director of the Climate and Energy Program at Worldwatch Institute, in an AFKInsider interview. “We see this all over the world right now and that’s good. It’s green jobs, (and) if locally manufactured, it means less transportation. And obviously these countries can produce a lot cheaper than if you were to import them from Europe.”
Solar panel manufacturers globally will increase their spending for the first time in three years as they look to meet demand in emerging economies, according to an August 2013 report from IHS. IHS predicts spending in 2014 will rise by more than 30 percent to $3.8 billion, driven by the growing demand for photovoltaic power in the emerging markets of sub-Saharan Africa, South America, and the Middle East.
In fact, more renewable projects are expected in Africa with the announcement this month that the African Renewable Energy Fund, which invests in projects in sub-Saharan Africa, raised $100 million and expected to double that in 2014, according to the African Development Bank. Other contributors include the West African Development Bank, Ecowas Bank for Investment and Development, Dutch development fund FMO, Togo-based African Biofuel and Energy Co. and Mauritius-based Berkeley Energy.
All this activity means more business for sub-Saharan Africa’s solar panel factories. So far in 2014, five new solar panel manufacturing plants have been announced or opened, adding to the nearly dozen that already exist in sub-Saharan Africa. One of these sites opened in January, when China-based JA Solar and South Africa-based Powerway formed a joint venture to establish a solar panel plant in Port Elizabeth’s COEGA Industrial Development Zone.
JA Solar makes solar panels while Powerway is a solar farm engineering company. Tian XU, sales director of JA Solar, told AFKInsider that the company is building up the factory for the third round of the South African Department of Energy’s renewable energy program. “The JA module factory will start ramping up in July or August 2014,” XU told AFKInsider. The plan is to be at full capacity by the end of 2014 and employ about 200 workers.
South African Solar Hub
South Africa remains the center of Africa’s solar panel manufacturing and is the base for a number of solar companies taking advantage of the government’s plan to deploy more than 1,400 megawatts of solar power by the end of 2014. The local content requirements for solar stipulated in the REIPPP have increased from 35 percent in the first and second REIPPP round, to 45 percent in the third round, behooving companies to locate there.
