Off-Grid Solar Electrification in Africa

ISBN-13: 9783031138270 / Angielski / Miękka / 2023

Opis

This book evaluates off-grid solar electrification in Africa by examining how political, economic, institutional, and social forces shape the adoption of off-grid solar technologies, including how issues of energy injustice are manifested at different levels and spaces. The book takes a historical, contemporary, and projective outlook using case studies from pre- and ongoing electrification communities in non-Western countries such as Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal, Malawi, Tanzania, and Nigeria. Beyond the diverse nature of these countries in terms of their geographical location in West, East, and Southern Africa, each offers a different experience in terms of colonial history, economic and institutional infrastructure, social and cultural context, and level of adoption of off-grid solar technologies.  Notably, the book contributes to the off-grid solar and energy justice scholarship in low-income non-Western contexts. It examines various approaches to energy justice and does so by engaging with Western and non-Western philosophical notions of the concept. It takes into consideration the major principles of Ubuntu philosophy with the adoption of off-grid solar technologies, hence enriching the energy justice framework. Finally, the book interrogates the degree to which the social mission that catalysed the expansion of the off-grid solar sector is being undermined by broader structural dynamics of the capital investment upon which it is reliant. It also argues that the ascendance of off-grid solar electrification in Africa is transformative in that it enables millions of people without access to or facing uncertainties linked to centralised grid energy to have access to basic energy services.

Spis treści

Chapter 1: Energy Justice and Off-Grid Solar Electrification in Africa: Trends, Narratives and Contestations.- Part I     History and Politics of Off-grid Solar Electrification.- Chapter 2 : Off-Grid Enterprise: A Critical History of Small-Scale Off-Grid Solar in Sub-Saharan Africa.- Chapter 3: At the Margins of the Grid: The Politics of Off-Grid Electrification in Senegal.- Chapter 4: Decade of Change: Off-Grid Solar Energy in Rwanda.- Part II     Manifestations of energy injustices.- Chapter 5:  The dark side of the sun: Solar home systems and their injustices in Africa.- Chapter 6 : Framing Energy Justice: Perspectives from Malawi’s Off-Grid Solar Market.- Chapter 7:  Gender Differentiation, Equality and Equity in Off-Grid Solar Usage in Rural Tanzania: A Fraying Thread?.- Chapter 8 ; On-Grid and Off-Grid Electrification in Kenya: Who are left Behind and Why?.- Part III   Enabling uptake: Constraints and Opportunities.- Chapter 9: Solar Home Systems in Rural landscapes: Examining the Forces Shaping Solar Home Systems Adoption in Southeast Nigeria.- Chapter 10:  Assessing Enablers and Barriers to Off-Grid Solar Electrification in Urban Ghana.- Chapter 11: Off-Grid Solar Electrification on the Rise in Africa, But Where to?.

O autorze

Nathanael Ojong is Assistant Professor of International Development Studies and Deputy Director of the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on Africa and its Diasporas at York University in Canada. He is a member of the Knowledge Network of African Experts established by the United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on Africa to help shape economic and social policy in Africa.

His work encompasses renewable energy technologies and finance capitalism, energy and sustainability, urban and rural livelihoods, financial development, inclusive growth, entrepreneurship, informal economies, socio-cultural influences on health outcomes, and social protection in Africa.

Blurb

This book evaluates off-grid solar electrification in Africa by examining how political, economic, institutional, and social forces shape the adoption of off-grid solar technologies, including how issues of energy injustice are manifested at different levels and spaces. The book takes a historical, contemporary, and projective outlook using case studies from pre- and ongoing electrification communities in non-Western countries such as Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal, Malawi, Tanzania, and Nigeria. Beyond the diverse nature of these countries in terms of their geographical location in West, East, and Southern Africa, each offers a different experience in terms of colonial history, economic and institutional infrastructure, social and cultural context, and level of adoption of off-grid solar technologies.  Notably, the book contributes to the off-grid solar and energy justice scholarship in low-income non-Western contexts. It examines various approaches to energy justice and does so by engaging with Western and non-Western philosophical notions of the concept. It takes into consideration the major principles of Ubuntu philosophy with the adoption of off-grid solar technologies, hence enriching the energy justice framework. Finally, the book interrogates the degree to which the social mission that catalysed the expansion of the off-grid solar sector is being undermined by broader structural dynamics of the capital investment upon which it is reliant. It also argues that the ascendance of off-grid solar electrification in Africa is transformative in that it enables millions of people without access to or facing uncertainties linked to centralised grid energy to have access to basic energy services.

Nathanael Ojong is Assistant Professor of International Development Studies and Deputy Director of the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on Africa and its Diasporas at York University in Canada. He is a member of the Knowledge Network of African Experts established by the United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on Africa to help shape economic and social policy in Africa. His work encompasses renewable energy technologies and finance capitalism, energy and sustainability, urban and rural livelihoods, financial development, inclusive growth, entrepreneurship, informal economies, socio-cultural influences on health outcomes, and social protection in Africa.