The Geographies Of Energy Justice: Assessing The Implications Of Solar Uptake In Kenya

For many parts of Kenya, as in much of Sub-Saharan Africa, access to electricity remains low, and spatial inequalities exist between rural and urban populations (Global Tracking Framework, 2017; Vera and Landlois, 2007). As Kenya's population increases rapidly with 40% under 30 in 2017, energy demands are rising exponentially (CIA.Gov, 2017; IEA, 2017). Kenya is at an energy crossroads as the government has committed to the provision of reliable energy to the whole population by 2020 (Kenya Power and Light Company, 2016).

Renewable energy systems, such as solar photovoltaics (PV), have been suggested as capable of meeting these energy requirements, while creating an energy pathway that can fulfil future carbon reduction requirements (Szabo et al., 2011; Deichmann et al. 2011; AfDB/ OECD/UNDP 2017). The Kenyan government is investing $2.1 billion on the electrification of rural regions through renewable technologies between 2016- 2021. This is expected to lead to an increase in instillation of mini grids for solar power generation (EXPO group, 2018).

The Energy Justice Framework (EJF), which draws on the environmental justice movement, offers a way to identify and discuss the inequalities which emerge with an energy transition through the application of a rights perspective at every stage of the energy supply chain (McCauley, 2018). The framework highlights the necessity of recognising all those who are impacted by energy decisions (recognition justice), enabling and supporting appropriate mechanisms for inclusions of all peoples in decision making (procedural justice), and in identifying how risks and benefits of energy decisions are distributed spatially and temporally across populations (distributional justice) (McCauley et al., 2013).

This research seeks to identify and examine issues of justice and equity with regard to decentralised solar PV energy systems in Kenya. The thesis will utilise the EJF principles of recognition, distributional and procedural energy justice to understand the ways in which social and environmental rights can be incorporated more fully in energy decision making processes (McCauley, 2018; Arabena and Kingsley, 2016).

The primary aim of my research is to evaluate the issues of equity in the opportunities and risks emerging from the use of decentralised solar PV systems in Kenya.

I will employ a mixed method approach for research based upon a first phase of quantitative Geographical Information Systems (GIS) analysis, to identify where key stakeholders and users of solar power are located in Kenya. A second phase of qualitative interviews aims to explore risks and benefits emerging from the use of decentralised solar systems, and to identify procedural mechanisms for the inclusion of solar PV users in system management. This approach builds on Daamgard's (2017) methodological approach to analyse energy justice concerns, which was applied to decentralised biogas systems in Nepal. However, there have been no case studies which have applied this methodology to energy justice research on solar PV systems in Kenya.