Emerging Low-Carbon Energy Landscapes and Energy Innovation Dilemmas in the Kenyan Periphery

Abstract

Interest in electrical grid access is high throughout Kenya and yet parastatals continually use location and proximity concepts to define the periphery as spaces ineligible for electrical grids due to dispersed and low electricity demand. Even the ongoing spatial expansion of electrical infrastructures to achieve universal electricity access (Vision 2020) and nation-wide economic transformation (Vision 2030) agenda favor peripheral locations only where electricity demand is considered adequate and residents live within the required 600-m radius from existing transformers. Uncertainties surrounding future grid extensions, unreliable electricity supply, and strong sociocultural attachments to homelands are the driving forces behind the uptake of decentralized solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in the periphery to gain energy autonomy by means of self-generating electricity in homes. Most households, at least based on the sample, frequently performed very important social practices according to energy services provided by decentralized systems and could perform energy-intensive practices only occasionally. Solar PV system uptake, however, grants users only a partial energy autonomy because it engenders rather precautionary energy practices, thereby obstructing certain social practices, not excluding home-based microbusiness activities. The solar PV transition potentially obstructs the state’s socioeconomic transformation visions, undermines the monopolistic agenda of parastatals, restricts practices in households and expectations placed on energy infrastructure, and fortuitously creates low-carbon energy solutions in specific spaces. The placemaking processes create low-carbon energy landscapes in the periphery but are inextricably bundled with tensions and conundrums in energy systems—henceforth called energy innovation dilemmas—subject to spatial (re-)organization of electrical grids and societal energy visions. In this article, I hypothesize geographical energy futures in Kenya and emphasize academic contributions realized by employing relational perspectives of energy, practices, and space in energy transition studies in settings characterized by structural uncertainties and constantly changing energy systems. Key Words: energy geographies, Kenya, social practices, solar PV systems, space production.

肯尼亚全国对于电网使用的兴趣相当高，但半官方机构仍迟续运用地点和邻近性的概念，将边陲因分散与低电力需求而定义为不适用电网的空间。即便在空间上持续扩张的电力基础建设旨在建设普遍的电力取得管道（愿景2020）和全国的经济转型（愿景2030），该议程只在电力需求被认为充足、且居民居住在既有变电设施半径六百米的必要范围内时偏好边陲地点。未来电网延伸的不确定性、不可靠的电力供应，以及对家园强大的社会文化依附，是边陲地区採取去中心化的太阳能光伏（PV）系统以在家自力发电的方式取得能源自主背后的驱力。大部分的家户——至少根据样本而言——经常根据去中心化的系统所提供的能源服务进行相当重要的社会活动，并且仅能偶尔从事高能源强度的活动。但採取太阳能PV系统仅赋予使用者部分的能源自主，因其产生相当预防性的能源实践，因而阻碍了若干社会实践，以家为基础的微商业活动亦无例外。转为太阳能PV，可能会阻碍国家的社会经济转型之愿景、损害半官方机构的独佔议程、限制家户活动以及寄託于能源基础建设的期望，并且在特定空间中意外造成低碳的能源解决方案。该地方打造过程，在边陲地区创造出低碳能源地景，但却无可避免地与能源系统中的紧张关系和困境相互綑绑——受限于电网和社会能源愿景的空间（再）组织。我于本文中假设肯尼亚地理能源的未来，并强调运用关系性视角，在结构不确定性和持续改变的能源系统条件下的能源转型研究中，检视能源、活动和空间所实现的学术贡献。关键词：能源地理，肯尼亚，社会实践，太阳能光伏（PV）系统，空间生产。

En todas partes de Kenia hay interés por el acceso al sistema de distribución eléctrica aunque las paraestatales continuamente están aplicando conceptos de localización y proximidad para definir la periferia como espacio inelegible para extender las redes eléctricas debido a la dispersa y baja demanda de electricidad. Incluso la actual agenda de expansión espacial de las infraestructuras eléctricas, con la que se busca conseguir acceso eléctrico universal (Vision 2020) y una transformación económica de alcance nacional (Vision 2030), solo favorece las localizaciones periféricas donde se considere adecuada la demanda de electricidad y donde los residentes viven dentro del radio establecido de 600m a partir de los transformadores existentes. La incertidumbre que rodea las futuras ampliaciones de la red, el suministro poco fiable de electricidad y el fuerte apego sociocultural al terruño natal son fuerzas que impulsan la adopción de los sistemas fotovoltaicos solares (PV) descentralizados en la periferia, con los que se quiere ganar la autonomía energética por medio del procedimiento de generar energía en los propios hogares. La mayoría de los hogares, por lo menos como lo que indica la muestra, con frecuencia llevan a cabo prácticas sociales muy importantes de acuerdo con los servicios de energía provistos por los sistemas descentralizados y podrían ejecutar prácticas energéticas intensivas solo de manera ocasional. La adopción del sistema solar PV, sin embargo, les garantiza a los usuarios tan solo un nivel de autonomía energético parcial en cuanto éste engendra prácticas energéticas muy protectoras, obstruyendo así ciertas prácticas sociales, sin excluir actividades microcomerciales basadas en el hogar. La transición solar PV obstruye potencialmente las visiones de transformación socioeconómica del estado, socaba la agenda monopolística de las paraestatales, restringe las prácticas de los hogares y las esperanzas puestas en la infraestructura energética, y de manera fortuita crea en lugares específicos soluciones de energía bajas en carbono. Los procesos de construcción de lugar crean en la periferia paisajes energéticos bajos en carbono, pero están inextricablemente empaquetados de tensiones y problemas en los sistemas energéticos—en lo sucesivo denominados dilemas de innovación energética—sujetos a la (re-)organización espacial de las redes eléctricas y las visiones sociales de la energía. En este artículo formulo hipótesis sobre los futuros geográficos de la energía en Kenia y enfatizo las contribuciones académicas realizadas empleando perspectivas relacionales de energía, prácticas y espacio en los estudios de transición energética, en escenarios que se caracterizan por incertidumbres estructurales y sistemas energéticos en constante cambio. Palabras clave: geografías de la energía, Kenia, prácticas sociales, producción de espacio, sistemas solares PV.

Acknowledgments

The writing of this article was based on the academic inspiration, financial and logistical support provided by Professor Eberhard Rothfuß, which I appreciate very much. Professor James McCarthy expressed a great interest in this piece and made constructive suggestions during the manuscript review process, and I really appreciate his kind gestures. I am sincerely grateful to the three anonymous reviewers for their invaluable and critical comments on earlier versions of this article. Many thanks also go to Mr. Moses Kansanga, Dr. John Boakye-Danquah, and friends in Kenya who provided diverse support during and after the fieldwork. The expeditious production of this article is the result of the competent hands of the AAG Cartographer (Dr. Stephen Hanna), as well as the meticulous works of Ms. Jennifer Cassidento, and Ms. Lea Cutler.

Notes

Notes

  1 This includes plug-and-play systems—small, mobile solar PV systems that can be plugged into homes to enable simple appliances, as well as huge systems usually erected on rooftops or mounted on the ground to provide electricity in homes. The term decentralized solar PV systems is used to describe both systems in this article, and clarifications are made whenever necessary.

  2 The literature repeatedly quotes a 5 percent access rate for almost a decade now, and so I chose to use the access rate for each of the forty-seven Kenyan counties provided by the KPLC in August 2017.

  3 KPLC purchases electrical energy in bulk from KenGen, Kenya’s main electricity generator. ERC regulates the energy sectors, including tariff setting, reviews, licensing, enforcement, approval of power purchase agreements, and network service contracts. REA was created in 2007 with the mandate to accelerate the pace of rural electrification in Kenya.

  4 This information was obtained during interviews with officers of KPLC and ERC during fieldwork in 2017.

  5 This category of grid electricity customers usually pays subsidised tariffs and includes users consuming fewer than 50 kWh per month.

  6 Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (German Society for International Cooperation).

  7 KES is the official acronym for Kenyan shillings. It is sometimes represented as Ksh in financial transactions. KES 100 was equivalent to US$1 during the fieldwork between September 2017 and August 2018.

  8 A solar energy company providing off-grid solar PV electrification services to rural locations in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.

  9 Information presented in this section was obtained by means of face-to-face research interviews and follow-up e-mail communications with officials of ERC and KPLC.

10 Since 2013, the Kenyan government has implemented a program to provide electricity to all primary schools in Kenya. By 2017, approximately 25,000 primary schools had been connected to electricity, including approximately 2,000 connected to off-grid solar power.

11 This information was obtained during communications with KPLC officers in 2017. It is therefore unpublished information.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Festus Boamah

FESTUS BOAMAH is a Post-doctoral Fellow and Lecturer at the Chair of Social and Population Geography, University of Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany. E-mail: [email protected]. His current research focuses on decentralized solar PV electrification and sociotechnical systems in Ghana and Kenya.