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Contribution short abstract

This thesis explores a new perspective on the legacies of colonial rule in Senegal's green financing.

Contribution long abstract

This study examines the fictions and realities of delivering renewable energy infrastructure in Senegal, tracing the injustices of colonialist capitalist financing and their impact on rural communities' experiences.

Global investors and national policies promote solar electrification as a climate strategy and a socially equitable renewable energy source. Still, an urgent need for action is underpinned and hampered by colonial-era logics revealed by fieldwork realities.

Climate finance in Senegal relies on foreign donors, and the country's electrification schemes exclusively favour large-scale utility projects, despite claims to the contrary.

Drawing on a multi-sited ethnographic study of rural Senegal's off-grid electricity projects, this research reveals an industry that highlights residues of colonial rule in Senegal's green financing. The country's energy system has been designed to prioritise financially rewarding areas at the expense of remote villages. Urban-rural disparities in securing funding can be traced back to the colonial period. Meanwhile, the country's history of extensive borrowing strengthens its links with foreign capital networks.

Moreover, the country's energy governance routinely adopts and implements large-scale solar infrastructure with little regard to efficiency and affordability. This project seeks to integrate the persistence of colonialism into energy studies, thereby assisting in understanding energy generation from the perspective of rural communities, as colonial and imported models dominate the country's energy projects. By exposing the limits of large-scale electrification projects and shedding light on the real needs of rural communities, the study aims to drive the development of more equitable, domestically tailored energy systems.