CAS BLOG: Energy Justice in Africa: Clean Energy for Whom?

Introduction: The Promise and Paradox of Clean Energy 

The International Day of Clean Energy, observed annually on 26 January, marks a global commitment to accelerating the transition towards sustainable energy systems. Established by the United Nations General Assembly, the day coincides with the founding of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in 2009. It underscores the urgency of addressing climate change while ensuring universal access to affordable and reliable energy. It serves as a platform to mobilise governments, private actors, and communities to invest in renewable energy technologies that support environmental sustainability, economic growth, and social equity. Central to this agenda is Sustainable Development Goal 7, which calls for affordable and clean energy for all, while recognising clean energy’s potential to generate jobs, reduce energy costs, and strengthen energy security.

However, clean energy is not merely a technical response to climate change. It is also a deeply political and social question. While renewable technologies such as solar, wind, and decentralised microgrids offer cost-effective, low-carbon solutions, their deployment often reflects existing power relations. In Africa, clean energy transitions frequently mirror historical racial, class-based, gendered, and spatial inequalities. Marginalised communities may bear the environmental and social costs of energy projects without equitably sharing in their benefits. This raises critical concerns about distributive, procedural, and recognition justice within energy planning.

This piece, therefore, raises a key question: Who benefits from Africa’s clean energy transition, and who is excluded? It argues that without prioritising justice in policy, investment, and governance, clean energy risks perpetuating the very inequalities it aims to address.

What Is Energy Justice? 

Energy justice is a conceptual framework that examines how the benefits and burdens of energy systems are produced, distributed, and governed across societies. It is commonly articulated through three interrelated dimensions: distributional justice, which concerns who gains access to energy and who bears its social and environmental costs; procedural justice, which focuses on who participates in energy decision-making processes; and recognition justice, which demands acknowledgement of historically marginalised identities, knowledges, and ways of life. Together, these dimensions move analysis beyond energy supply to interrogate power, inequality, and accountability within energy transitions.

This framework is particularly relevant in African contexts, where energy infrastructure is deeply shaped by colonial extraction and uneven development in the postcolonial context. Many contemporary energy systems continue to prioritise industrial and urban centres, while rural and marginalised communities experience persistent energy poverty. These patterns reflect historical exclusions that are reproduced in contemporary clean energy projects unless justice is explicitly addressed. As a result, renewable energy expansion may coexist with social dispossession, land loss, and limited local benefit.

Energy justice stands in contrast to technocratic and market-led approaches that frame clean energy primarily as a problem of efficiency, cost reduction, or technological optimisation. Such approaches often obscure social relations and depoliticise questions of ownership, participation, and accountability. By contrast, energy justice foregrounds lived experience and structural inequality.

This blog is situated within the project at the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, which prioritises a critical social science orientation and historically grounded, socially embedded, and justice-centred analyses of Africa’s energy futures through transdisciplinary scholarship.

Historical Roots of Unequal Energy Infrastructures in Africa 

We must also scrutinise the history of uneven energy systems and the lived realities that continue to shape Africa’s energy landscape. Energy infrastructure in Africa is closely linked to the historical circumstances under which it was created and implemented. During the colonial era, electricity systems were mainly established to serve extractive economies, administrative centres, and settler populations. Power generation and transmission were focused around mines, railways, ports, and colonial capitals, while African rural areas were intentionally left out of electrification. For instance, in Southern and Central Africa, electricity grids extended to mining complexes and European residential areas, reinforcing racial hierarchies through unequal access to modern services.

Under apartheid in South Africa, these patterns were intensified through formalised racial and spatial planning. Electricity provision was systematically prioritised for white urban suburbs and industrial zones. At the same time, Black townships, homelands, and informal settlements were either underserved or excluded entirely—Eskom’s infrastructure expansion aligned with apartheid geography, embedding inequality into the grid’s physical layout. Even where electrification occurred in Black areas, it was often unreliable, limited in capacity, and disconnected from broader economic opportunities.

These racialised and spatialised infrastructures did not disappear with political independence or democratic transition. Instead, they continue to shape contemporary energy landscapes. Post-apartheid electrification programs have expanded access, yet informal settlements and rural communities still experience energy insecurity due to grid limitations, affordability constraints, and insecure tenure. Across Africa, large-scale renewable projects such as wind farms and solar parks are frequently located in rural areas but connected to national grids that primarily supply urban and industrial users, offering limited local benefit.

As a result, “green” energy infrastructure often overlays older exclusionary systems rather than dismantling them. Without addressing the historical injustices embedded in energy planning, clean energy transitions risk reproducing colonial and apartheid-era inequalities under a new, sustainable banner.

Clean Energy in Practice: Who Has Access and Who Does Not? 

Across Africa, clean energy initiatives such as solar home systems, mini-grids, and off-grid solutions are frequently promoted as transformative responses to energy poverty. Yet, when examined in practice, access to these technologies remains uneven and deeply shaped by class, geography, and legal status. Examples from Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and South Africa illustrate how clean energy often mirrors existing social inequalities rather than overcoming them.

In Kenya, pay-as-you-go solar systems have expanded rapidly in both urban and rural areas. While these systems have improved access for some low-income households, they remain more accessible to those with stable incomes and mobile banking access. Poorer households frequently struggle to keep up with payments, leading to interrupted service and reduced energy use. Similarly, in Uganda, rural mini-grids have brought electricity to previously unserved communities. Yet, high connection fees and tariffs often exclude the poorest residents, who continue to rely on biomass for cooking and lighting.

In Malawi, off-grid solar initiatives are concentrated in rural areas where grid expansion is deemed economically unviable. These systems typically provide basic lighting and phone charging but are insufficient for productive uses such as irrigation or small-scale manufacturing. As a result, rural communities receive minimal access to energy, while urban centres remain prioritised for higher-capacity supply. This creates a stratified energy landscape rather than meaningful energy equality.

Zimbabwe presents another layer of inequality shaped by economic instability. Solar adoption has grown among middle-class households seeking alternatives to frequent power cuts, while low-income urban residents and rural communities remain excluded due to high upfront costs. Clean energy thus becomes a coping mechanism for those who can afford it, rather than a universal solution.

In South Africa, rooftop solar and battery storage have surged in affluent suburbs amid load shedding. Meanwhile, residents of townships, informal settlements, and migrant-dense areas face unreliable supply, limited grid access, and exclusion from subsidised renewable energy programs due to insecure tenure or lack of documentation.

These cases demonstrate that access to clean energy across Africa is unevenly distributed. Without deliberate policies addressing affordability, spatial inequality, and legal exclusion, clean energy transitions risk reinforcing existing hierarchies under a sustainable banner.

Gender, Care, and the Hidden Burdens of Energy Poverty 

Energy poverty in Africa disproportionately affects women, who bear the primary responsibility for household energy provisioning and care work. In rural Malawi and Zimbabwe, women spend hours collecting firewood or charcoal for cooking, exposing them to health risks from smoke inhalation and physical strain. This time-consuming labour limits opportunities for education, income generation, and participation in community decision-making, illustrating how energy deprivation is inseparable from gendered social roles.

Access to clean energy directly shapes women’s ability to manage essential care responsibilities. In Kenya and Uganda, solar-powered lighting and off-grid electricity enable mothers to cook safely after dark, refrigerate medicines, and provide better care for sick children. In South Africa, projects like the University of Johannesburg’s “UJ for Societal Impact” in Gwakwani, Limpopo, have brought solar panels and safe electricity to villages and schools, reducing reliance on paraffin and candles and improving domestic safety. Yet, many low-income households remain excluded due to cost or insecure tenure, reinforcing gendered burdens, as women continue to bear the hidden weight of energy scarcity.

Recognising this requires understanding energy justice as inclusive of unpaid care work and embodied labour. Policies that promote rooftop solar or mini-grids often focus on productive or commercial energy use, overlooking household energy needs and caregiving burdens. Without explicitly addressing these dimensions, clean energy interventions risk improving efficiency while leaving the invisible labour of women unacknowledged. Achieving energy justice in Africa thus demands centring women’s experiences, valuing their labour, and designing energy systems that reduce—not reproduce—the hidden burdens of care.

Conclusion: Rethinking Clean Energy and Re-imagining Cleaner, Equitable Futures

Rethinking clean energy in Africa requires moving beyond efficiency and technology toward justice-centred approaches that address historical and structural inequalities. The International Day of Clean Energy, observed annually on 26 January, invites us to consider energy transitions not only as technical but also as profoundly social and political. A truly equitable energy future prioritises community-based and cooperative models, where local communities collectively own and manage renewable infrastructure. 

Moreover, including migrants, refugees, and other non-citizens in energy planning ensures that legal status does not limit access to vital energy services. These approaches prioritise participation, dignity, and social inclusion over narrow technical or market measures. Women, who carry most household energy and caregiving responsibilities, gain time, safety, and power when clean energy initiatives acknowledge and reduce their labour burdens.

Ultimately, Africa’s clean energy transition must answer the question: For whom is it intended? Without embedding justice at every stage, renewable technologies risk reproducing the classed, racialised, and gendered inequalities of past systems. The International Day of Clean Energy calls on scholars, policymakers, and practitioners to place equity and participation at the heart of energy planning, envisioning a future in which sustainable energy serves all communities, not just the privileged few.

Dr Tamuka Chekero is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, formerly associated with the Operationalising a Just Transition in Africa (OJTA) project, which is funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). 

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Pretoria.