Gebreslassie, M.G., Bekele, G., Bahta, S.T. et al. (7 more authors) (2024) Developing community energy systems to facilitate Ethiopia's transition to sustainable energy. Energy Research & Social Science, 117. 103713. ISSN 2214-6296
Abstract
In Ethiopia, renewable energy offers people an affordable, dependable, and eco-friendly power supply while decreasing the carbon footprint. However, delivering a renewable future for the country requires a massive change in social practices and systems of provision. The slow progress of renewable development is hindering the transition to a cleaner energy future. Over 80 % of people live in rural areas where it is expensive to reach them via grid networks in Ethiopia, requiring off-grid alternatives. Community energy systems, which are off-grid energy systems in which communities play a key role, offer alternative strategies to close the country's energy access gap. However, community energy systems remain underdeveloped in Ethiopia. There is a need to understand the opportunities for community energy and the barriers that hinder its development in Ethiopia, and their role in energy transitions. This paper adopts an experimental lens to understand the diverse dimensions of community energy projects through how they are made, maintained, and lived. Using a comparative analysis of three multi-method, qualitative case studies, this paper argues that the political context poses the biggest obstacle to the development of community energy in Ethiopia despite these projects' tangible benefits. The analysis indicates that community energy projects allow communities to be involved in all stages of project development. In every project, communities assume project management responsibilities after commissioning. However, these projects encounter challenges in resourcing capital, managing supply chains, and building necessary skills among community members to understand business models to ensure sustained operation of the systems.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Authors. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Community energy; Community engagement; Business models; Technology; Energy access |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Faculty of Social Sciences Research Institute |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number ECONOMIC & SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL ES/T006358/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 14 Nov 2024 10:22 |
Last Modified: | 14 Nov 2024 10:22 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2024.103713 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier BV |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.erss.2024.103713 |
Sustainable Development Goals: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:219623 |