Transforming Access to Clean Energy Technologies in the Global South: Learning from Lighting Africa in Kenya

David Ockwell, Robert Byrne, Joanes Atela, Victoria Chengo, Elsie Onsongo, Jacob Fodio Todd, Victoria Kasprowicz and Adrian Ely
Additional contact information
David Ockwell: Department of Geography, School of Global Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9SJ, UK
Robert Byrne: SPRU (Science Policy Research Unit), Sussex Business School, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9SL, UK
Joanes Atela: African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), ICIPE Duduville Campus, Kasarani, P.O. Box 45917-00100 Nairobi, Kenya
Victoria Chengo: African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), ICIPE Duduville Campus, Kasarani, P.O. Box 45917-00100 Nairobi, Kenya
Elsie Onsongo: Centre for Innovation Research, Centenary House, Block B, 1st Floor, Ring Road Westlands Lane, P.O. Box 2781-00606 Nairobi, Kenya
Jacob Fodio Todd: SPRU (Science Policy Research Unit), Sussex Business School, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9SL, UK
Victoria Kasprowicz: SPRU (Science Policy Research Unit), Sussex Business School, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9SL, UK
Adrian Ely: SPRU (Science Policy Research Unit), Sussex Business School, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9SL, UK

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 14, 1-24

Abstract: As SDG7-related interventions seek to transform access to clean energy, this paper presents an analysis of both a previous transformative intervention (Lighting Africa) and a theoretical approach to understanding how such transformations can be achieved in the Global South (socio-technical innovation system, STIS, building). The paper makes four contributions. First, it tests the extent to which the STIS-building concept is useful in understanding and conceptualising how Lighting Africa transformed the market for solar lanterns in Kenya from an estimated market size of 29,000 lamps in 2009 to one where 680,000 Lighting Africa certified lamps were sold in Kenya by the end of the Programme in 2013. Second, it presents the most in-depth analysis of Lighting Africa that we are aware of to date. Third, it presents a conceptual framework that illustrates the Lighting Africa approach, providing a framework for future policy interventions aiming to transform access to clean energy technologies in the Global South. Fourth, it reflects on weaknesses in the STIS approach. In particular, these include a need to better attend to: the gendered implications of interventions (and social justice more broadly); implications of different scales of technologies; value accumulation and the extent to which interventions benefit indigenous actors and local economies; and the political and economic implications of any intervention and its distribution of benefits.

Keywords: energy access; sustainability transformations; solar lanterns; clean cooking; electric cooking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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