Off-Grid Electrical Urbanism: Emerging Solar Energy Geographies in Ordinary Cities

Abstract

ABSTRACT Off-grid solar products, which are typically positioned as a solution to rural energy poverty, have experienced rapid sales growth in urban centers across the Global South over the last decade. In this article, we critically examine the rapidly emerging off-grid electrical urbanism in the Global South, with a focus on how off-grid solar technologies are reshaping urban energy geographies in “ordinary cities.” We document how forms of off-grid electrical urbanisms have emerged as a response to urban energy poverty, drawing on case study insights from Gulu (Uganda), Mzuzu (Malawi), and Luganville (Vanuatu). In doing so, we demonstrate how the flow of off-grid solar products are shaped by a range of differing political economies—including financial flows, migration dynamics, and regional aid programs. We go on to argue that off-grid electrical urbanism, in its current form, is largely underpinned by a marketized model of energy infrastructure dissemination. A model that tends to reproduce geographies of energy inequality.