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Paper short abstract:

The paper explores how moving away from the electric grid relates to sedimented injustices by arguing that the solar practices of the wealthy transform the service provision and distribution of energy services in cities, with potential risks of perpetuating issues of inequality and marginalization.

Paper long abstract:

This research project asks, what is the relationship between the wealthy moving away from the electric grid and social justice in Cape Town, South Africa? Given that residents are never completely disconnected from the grid, the paper explores how moving away from the electric grid relates to sedimented injustices by arguing that the solar practices of the wealthy transform the service provision and distribution of energy services in cities, with potential risks of perpetuating issues of inequality and marginalization. The overarching goal of the study is to integrate the everyday solar practices of the wealthy into debates on infrastructure, urban sustainable city-making, and social justice. This is achieved through assemblages of hybrid energy technologies with a particular focus on solar power users, senior officials in the City of Cape Town municipality, and Independent Power Producers (IPPs). Using critical discourse analysis and interview data, the paper outlines the key impacts (past, current, projected) these solar practices may have on the grid, municipal finances, and social justice.

The new knowledge the paper generates indicates there is a semi-grid emerging for the wealthy, one where the state competes with neoliberal markets. The study found that wealthy residents are not installing solar panels to adhere to a coherent energy policy developed by the state to move Cape Town toward sustainability; they are taking the initiative in a situation of state failure by defecting the grid and escaping load shedding (scheduled power cutouts). With this being said, the imaginaries of the wealthy are not centered around the idea of social justice and collective equality, but self-interest. The findings demonstrate that wealthy residents associate solar panels with a sustainable future by choosing to only focus on environmental justice. In so doing, not realizing the social implications it may create as it is not in their interest to fight against this injustice, especially when it does not affect them. Therefore, the just transition to sustainable futures must embody a commitment to fairness, both in the sense of who will bear the burden of climate change mitigation policies and who will benefit from it. As it stands, the wealthy appear to be the winners in the just transition and the less fortunate are the losers.

The study uses an energy landscape approach to broaden the focus of infrastructure scholarship to include a) solar practices and b) the wealthy. In this way, the paper generates new insights into how the wealthy shape and auto-construct the unequal city which intersects with enduring injustices.

Keywords: the grid, solar practices, the wealthy, energy infrastructure, social justice.