Volta photovoltaics: Ruptures in resource access as gendered injustices for solar energy in Ghana

Abstract

Increasing renewable energy capacity to achieve climate goals will necessitate the rapid development of utility-scale solar plants throughout Ghana. Situated in the impoverished Upper West region, the Kaleo Lawra solar plant serves as a grim admonition. Drawing from mixed methods fieldwork and the literatures of feminist political ecology and critical energy geography, we examine the following research question: How has the development of the Kaleo Lawra solar plant influenced gendered livelihoods and resource access? The solar plant was developed to mitigate the climate crisis and combat energy poverty but actually exacerbates social vulnerabilities through energy and resource dispossessions. Although the government of Ghana has committed to mainstream gender considerations within all national climate and energy policies and development processes, solar enclosures in the agrarian Upper West have effectively produced a gendered surplus population without resources and livelihoods. Yet respondents had an overall “neutral to favorable” perception about the solar park. Maintaining optimism in the face of deprivation is a demonstration of courage and resilience, a renewable resource more valuable than farmed photons on fenced fields.