Electrifying africa: an environmental history with policy implications

@article{Showers2011ElectrifyingAA,
  title={Electrifying africa: an environmental history with policy implications},
  author={Kate B. Showers},
  journal={Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography},
  year={2011},
  volume={93},
  pages={193 - 221}
}
  • K. Showers
  • Published 1 September 2011
  • Economics
  • Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography
Abstract. The European Union anticipates alleviating future energy shortages and fulfilling renewable energy mandates by importing “green” electricity from Africa. Historical precedent and environmental consequences have largely been ignored. This article presents an environmental history of African electricity generation at a continental scale, tracing its parallel developments with colonialism, as well as its pursuit in the independence eras of development assistance and neoliberalism… 
View on Taylor & Francis
geography.fullerton.edu
23 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
1
Background Citations
8
Methods Citations
1
Results Citations
1

23 Citations

Citation Type

Citation Type

Europe's long history of extracting African renewable energy: Contexts for African scientists, technologists, innovators and policy-makers
Having failed to identify local energy supplies compliant with Kyoto Protocol obligations, the EU turned to Africa in the 21st C. According to definition, the term ‘renewable energy’ source equally…
Rural electrification in the British Empire
ABSTRACT Looking at satellite images of the globe at night, large parts of the West as well as Asia are highlighted in a sparkling net of lights while many areas of the Global South are still…
Space and energy transitions in sub-Saharan Africa: Understated historical connections
Abstract Sub-Saharan Africa is seeing an influx of international interest and investment in energy projects designed to address the energy poverty and climate agendas. Often missing from these energy…
The Role of Political Economy in Energy Access: Public and Private Off-Grid Electrification in Tanzania
Off-grid renewable energy sources are dramatically altering the energy landscape in countries with low energy access. While techno-economic perspectives are already widely discussed, the political…
The Unseeing State: How Ideals of Modernity Have Undermined Innovation in Africa’s Urban Water Systems
TLDR
This paper argues that the lack of innovation in African urban water infrastructure can be understood using Pinch and Bijker’s concept of technological closure, and by looking at water technology from its embedded values and ideology.
Towards a Sustainable Energy Future for Sub-Saharan Africa
  • S. Situmbeko
  • Business
    Energy Management for Sustainable Development
  • 2018
Current global population is estimated at 7.5 billion with 1.25 billion living in developed countries and 6.25 billion in less developed countries. Africa’s population is approximated at 1.25 billion…
Connecting the Empire: New Research Perspectives on Infrastructures and the Environment in the (Post)Colonial World
TLDR
New research perspectives beyond this straightforward, ‘diffusionist’ perspective on technology transfer are explored and fresh insights for a broader debate about how infrastructures work within specific parameters of time, place and culture are offered.
The Politics of Electricity Access and Environmental Security in Mozambique
Electricity access is a key aspect of achieving Sustainable Development Goal 7. Alleviating poverty by increasing the availability of grid connections, system reliability and generation capacity is a…
Energy landscapes in Mozambique: The role of the extractive industries in a post-conflict environment
Rather than an integrated project of modernity, the provision of energy in Mozambique is characterized by social and territorial fragmentation. Our concern in this article is with spatial-political…
Electricity and Empire in 1920s Palestine under British Rule
TLDR
The study shows that the British had limited control of the actual electrification process and its declared/professed developmental purposes, thereby complicating assumptions about electrification as a tool of the Empire/tool of empire.
...
1
2
3
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 152 REFERENCES
Congo River’s Grand Inga hydroelectricity scheme: linking environmental history, policy and impact
The idea of using the second largest river on earth—Africa’s Congo—for electricity production has existed for over 100 years. Plans first proposed in 1928 were more fully explored during the European…
Turning Water into Power: Debates over the Development of Tanzania’s Rufiji River Basin, 1945–1985
TLDR
It is argued that the shifting of the setting of knowledge construction from the basin to distant planning offices did not lead to projects based on better scientific knowledge, but set the stage for Tanzania’s current electricity problems.
Beyond Mega on a Mega Continent: Grand Inga on Central Africa’s Congo River
Africa has been estimated to contain one-half of the world’s hydropower potential; its Congo River, the earth’s second largest by flow, for one-quarter. Twentieth century intention to “harness” the…
Rural electrification in Zambia: A policy and institutional analysis
Zambia is well endowed with hydropower and other energy resources, which could facilitate production of electricity for both urban and rural areas of the country. The country has an installed…
Electricity Reform at a Crossroads : Problems in South Korea ’ s Power Liberalization Strategy
Electricity sector reform has become commonplace around the world, but few nations can match the extent of transformation attempted in South Korea. On December 8, 2000, two legislative initiatives…
Wasting the Rain: Rivers, People and Planning in Africa
The development of water resources in Africa has always been central to plans for its economic development. This book reveals how although reservoirs and irrigation schemes dot the landscape,…
Rural electrification in Tunisia : national commitment, efficient implementation and sound finances
Tunisia's achievement of 100 percent urban and 88 percent rural electrification is remarkable, all the more so because the country's definition of rural electrification is restricted to connections…
Water Scarcity and Urban Africa: An Overview of Urban–Rural Water Linkages
A first review of urban Africa's dependence on larger landscapes for water is presented. Tables document: changing water sources between 1970s and 1990s; industrial and domestic wastewater treatment…
Evolution of the river basin concept in national and international water law
Planning and managing the use of rivers, lakes and related groundwaters by river basin units is a 20th Century concept, expressed in law through statutes and treaties mostly within the past 50 to 75…
A Subsystemic Analysis of the Southern African Development Coordination Conference
The overriding structural and political characteristic of the Southern African subsystem has been the dominance of the Republic of South Africa.1 Indeed, South Africa's ties to the subordinate states…
...
1
2
3
4
5
...