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.