Somewhat original: energy ethics in Malawi’s off-grid solar market

ABSTRACT

Solar products are increasingly framed as being integral to addressing energy poverty in the Global South. This is especially the case in sub-Saharan Africa where the promise of centralized grids has given way to an emphasis on off-grid market-based solutions. While these solutions promise much, the quality and originality of these products is often contested. In this paper, we draw upon ethnographic insights from Malawi’s solar market to examine the energy justice implications of this deepening reliance on markets to provide energy for poor populations with no access to electricity. Specifically, we examine the ethics and implications of ‘somewhat original’ solar – an amorphous product category that constitutes the vast majority of solar products sold in the Global South. Analysing Malawi’s solar market, this paper illustrates how moral claims about off-grid solar products often sit incongruously with the realities of global supply chains and poor market regulation. We conclude that while off-grid solar products offer the energy poor some respite from darkness, they are, nonetheless, commodities that are prone to reproducing structural forms of injustice and do not, always, represent a sustainable solution to energy poverty in the Global South.

KEYWORDS:

• Energy poverty
• energy ethics
• solar
• off-grid
• Africa
• Malawi

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the key informants that made this research project possible. In particular, we would like to thank Mr. Bright Msuku, whose passion, dedication and insight was vital to this undertaking. Finally, the lead author of this paper acknowledges that he is the recipient of an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethics approval

The research detailed in this article was conducted after obtaining Human Research Ethics approval (HREAP B: Arts, Humanities & Law) at the University of New South Wales, Australia. This research was classified as low-risk and the relevant reference number is HC17935. The study was approved to obtain verbal consent (via audio recordings) as participants were likely to have limited or no written literacy skills, and verbal consent is a more widely accepted cultural norm in Malawi. Consent statements were read out in local languages (Chichewa or Tumbukka) and an audio recording of consent was obtained at the beginning of each interview that was conducted.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shanil Samarakoon

Shanil Samarakoon is a PhD Candidate (Environmental Humanities)  at the University of New South Wales (Australia). He has 15 years of experience working on projects relating to energy, cooperatives and agroecology across Malawi and Sri Lanka. His PhD research focuses on issues of energy justice in Malawi's off-grid solar market, while his broader research interests include issues relating to energy poverty, energy transitions and energy justice in Sub-Saharan African contexts.

Anne Bartlett

Anne L. Bartlett is an Associate Professor in the Environment and Society Group at the University of New South Wales. She has worked in East and Sahelian African for more than 20 years on projects related to energy, land conflict, humanitarian emergency and development. She is currently President of the African Studies Association of Australasia and the Pacific. 

Paul Munro

Paul Munro is an Associate Professor in Human Geography within the Environment and Society Group at the University of New South Wales. He has an established research record in the fields of political ecology and environmental history, and has written extensively on the topics of forest governance and energy transitions with a particular geographical focus on Sub-Saharan Africa.