What kind of sustainable professional ecosystem is needed for solar energy workers in Africa?

Project overview

Over the past few decades, the range of electricity services available on the African continent has diversified considerably, notably through so-called decentralised solutions (solar lamps, domestic solar kits, mini-grids) (Guillou, 2022; Cholez & Trompette, 2022). These solutions are set to play a central role in providing access to electricity, particularly in rural areas (IEA, 2023). However, even as increasing volumes of investment are being channelled into the development of renewable energy, a significant proportion of solar projects in sub-Saharan Africa, and in particular mini-grid projects, end in failure, with equipment deteriorating and struggling to remain operational for more than ten years (Etienne, 2022; Cholez & Trompette, 2019; ENEA & Practical Action, 2023). Investors, mini-grid developers and operators, and suppliers of domestic solar kits all face numerous challenges in ensuring the sustainability of decentralised electricity infrastructure. The lack of data and knowledge is thus a major obstacle to the productive use of electricity generated by mini-grids, even though such uses are a key condition for their profitability (ESMAP, 2022; UNIDO, 2022). The organisation of stable maintenance and repair chains is another. Building on these observations, this thesis examines decentralised electricity infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa and the obstacles to its sustainability, proposing to do so through the lens of solar workers and their activities. The aim is to suggest that the sustainability of decentralised electricity infrastructure depends fundamentally on the existence of ecosystems of workers or professionals, rooted in specific local areas. This leads to an analysis of the conditions under which such localised professional ecosystems emerge, which are capable of adapting this infrastructure to local contexts over the long term. Two contrasting case studies in relation to this question were selected for the fieldwork: Cameroon, where 26% of the rural population has access to electricity, and Madagascar, where less than 15% have access (World Bank, 2023). What local maintenance and repair skills are necessary for the sustainability of a decentralised electrical infrastructure? What conditions are needed to support, or even encourage, the emergence and structuring of an ecosystem of specialised actors? The thesis posits that we must examine these skills by situating them within their localised professional ecosystems in order to understand the diversity of actors, the complexity of the relationships they maintain, and the vitality of local maintenance economies. The approach we propose here will enable us to focus on a wide range of workers beyond engineers alone, including professionals of all skill levels and from all sectors. It builds on sociological approaches which, in recent years, have encouraged a focus on the largely unseen work of those referred to as ‘the workers on the ground’, who nevertheless form part of the ecosystem of actors ensuring the technical management of an infrastructure. Within the framework of the proposed thesis, repair technicians and tradespeople will thus form part of the specific populations under study. Through an analysis of work ‘in the making ’ (Ughetto, 2018), the aim will be to explore the role they play in the operation and sustainability of decentralised electrical infrastructure, particularly through the numerous ‘tinkering’ and innovations that ensure the day-to-day functioning of electrical infrastructure in a context of failing service provision by conventional networks (Rateau, 2022; Olivier de Sardan, 2023).