What drives me - Kassel doctoral candidates and their topics

The energy transition and renewable energies are topics that concern us all - especially with regard to climate change. This is exactly my motivation to deal with the energy transition in Africa. While economic development in the past was mostly based on fossil fuels, African countries today have the opportunity to skip this step and directly rely on renewable energies. But how does such an energy turnaround work? What framework conditions does politics create and what effects do financial flows (green funds) and investments by international companies have? The GLOCALPOWER research project examines these two aspects on the basis of the countries Ghana, Zambia and South Africa. Against this background, the energy transition in Africa is a "glocal" challenge, i.e. simultaneously local and global.

Within the GLOCALPOWER team, I am working on my PhD as a doctoral student. I am investigating the framework conditions of the energy transition in various African states with regard to how local companies and political actors are involved in the decision-making processes. International companies bring money and know-how into the country, but the local impact is often very different.

In the spring, I was in Zambia from February to March. There, the response to the project was very good, which is also due to the current expansion of renewable energies as a response to energy shortages. To find out more about local conditions, I conducted expert interviews with international organizations and national decision-makers. In doing so, I investigated the central question of whether this expansion is sustainable in terms of strengthening local economic structures and creating jobs. At the moment, however, it can be observed that the expansion of renewable energies is more of an international project, in which national decision-makers and local companies only participate to a limited extent. Thus, the opportunity to simultaneously expand renewable energy and strengthen the economy in the country is not being taken.

The GLOCALPOWER team consists of six people and the project is planned for five years. Currently, we are in the second year, looking at countries for case studies. Our goal is to recommend courses of action for a long-term perspective with regard to the energy transition in Africa.