Chinese telecommunications equipment firm ZTE says it is working across 15 African countries to deploy renewable solar energy to these countries.

The countries include Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Niger, says ZTE in a statement.

And ZTE says the projects in these countries involve a variety of its green energy products and solutions, including solar lighting systems, mobile solar power systems, solar power for telecommunications base stations and solar power for household lighting systems.

"The solar street lighting project constructed by ZTE is one of the best renewable energy projects that exists in Niger," said Oumarou Dogari Moumouni, the former mayor of Niamey, the capital of Niger.

Africa suffers from constant power shortages leaving more than 580 million people to light their homes with kerosene lamps

But ZTE says that Africa's natural resources mean that it has a great source of renewable energy from the sun, and that solar power is a safe, reliable and low cost way of generating alternative electricity sources.

"We are helping African countries maximize the power of their local resources and use renewable energy in a number of innovative ways," said Wang Yiwen, ZTE chief technology officer of government and enterprise business in the Middle East and Africa region.