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Paper short abstract:

Renewable energy transitions are most often studied through the lens of production choices. This paper looks instead at how the political economy of electricity consumption also affects the speed and character of such transitions, using case studies of wind and solar power in Brazil and South Africa

Paper long abstract:

The provision of basic services like electricity is part of the governing pact between modern states and their societies. Citizens provide political support and revenues through taxes and fees for the state. In return, they expect that states will provide the basic infrastructures of security, energy, transportation, and the like, which are the foundations of modern economic life. Yet real states deliver on these promises more and less well - and unequally.

In this paper, I discuss electricity distribution and consumption through a broad political economy framing. Electricity provision is not just a technical task of building generation, transmission, and distribution capacity, but responds to how the state manages and organizes the economy. I argue that electricity provision also reflects which political coalitions and actors can make effective demands to have their electricity consumption needs met in conditions when not all do. These are fundamental distributive questions, at the heart of the central political question of who gets what and when: who benefits from electricity policies? In particular, I ask whether the electricity regimes in Brazil and South Africa have consolidated or reduced socioeconomic inequalities. I also ask how the introduction of renewable sources of electricity like wind and solar power may affect those dynamics.

The paper is based on extended fieldwork in Brazil and South Africa, and draws on interviews with policy makers and activists. It also uses data from household and industry surveys to present a broader picture of electricity consumption in the two countries.