Théo Baraillé – Employment and workers in the solar sector in sub-Saharan Africa (Cameroon, Madagascar): an analysis by activity and professional ecosystems

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 levels of investment are being channelled into the development of renewable energy, a significant proportion of solar projects in sub-Saharan Africa – particularly mini-grids – 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, including mini-grid developers and operators, as well as suppliers of domestic solar kits, face numerous challenges in ensuring the long-term viability 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 supply chains is another such challenge. Building on these observations, this thesis examines decentralised electricity infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa and the obstacles to its sustainability, approaching the subject through the lens of solar workers and their activities. The aim is to suggest that the sustainability of decentralised electricity infrastructure fundamentally depends 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 issue were selected for the fieldwork: Cameroon, where 26 per cent of the rural population has access to electricity, and Madagascar, where less than 15 per cent has access (World Bank, 2023). What local maintenance and repair skills are required to ensure the long-term viability of a decentralised electrical infrastructure? What conditions are needed to support, or even encourage, the emergence and development of such skills into an ecosystem of specialist stakeholders? This thesis posits that we must examine these skills by situating them within their regional professional ecosystems in order to understand the diversity of stakeholders, the complexity of the relationships between them, and the vitality of local maintenance economies. The approach we propose here will enable us to focus on a wide variety of workers beyond engineers alone, including professionals of all qualification levels and from all sectors. It builds on sociological approaches which, in recent years, have encouraged a focus on the often-overlooked work of those referred to as ‘unskilled labourers’, who nevertheless form part of the ecosystem of stakeholders ensuring the technical management of infrastructure. As part of the proposed thesis, repair technicians and tradespeople will therefore form part of the specific groups 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 unreliable service provision by conventional networks (Rateau, 2022; Olivier de Sardan, 2023).