Towards a repair research agenda for off-grid solar e-waste in the Global South

Paul G. Munro (), Shanil Samarakoon, Ulrich E. Hansen, Matthew Kearnes, Anna Bruce, Jamie Cross, Sarah Walker and Collen Zalengera
Additional contact information
Paul G. Munro: University of New South Wales
Shanil Samarakoon: University of New South Wales
Ulrich E. Hansen: Technical University of Denmark
Matthew Kearnes: University of New South Wales
Anna Bruce: University of New South Wales
Jamie Cross: University of Edinburgh
Collen Zalengera: Mzuzu University

Nature Energy, 2023, vol. 8, issue 2, 123-128

Abstract: Abstract There has been a boom in the sale of small-scale off-grid solar products across the Global South over the past decade. A substantial portion of this boom has been driven by international investment in off-grid solar start-up companies, and a formalized off-grid solar sector has been established, with the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association acting as a key representative body. Although this boom has aided in extending electricity access to many energy-poor households and businesses, an emerging concern is the short (three to four years) working life that these off-grid solar products typically have. This has led to a growing issue of solar e-waste. Here we examine how the structure of the off-grid solar sector results in substantial barriers to addressing solar e-waste in the Global South. We consider how practices of repair might contribute to addressing the issue, and set out a research agenda to facilitate new approaches to the issues of solar e-waste.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-022-01103-9 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natene:v:8:y:2023:i:2:d:10.1038_s41560-022-01103-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/nenergy/

DOI: 10.1038/s41560-022-01103-9

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Energy is currently edited by Fouad Khan

More articles in Nature Energy from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().