Community energization: Demonstration and implementation of safe, clean, and sustainable energy

Urban energy poverty is prevalent in dense low-income settlements of African conurbations, including the Gauteng megacity. The prevailing energy poverty is a key contributor to fires, burn injuries, health impairments, insecurity, and community dissatisfaction and violence. Broadening access to clean and safe energy has the potential to improve community safety profiles, promote peace, and raise wellbeing. This paper presents a community participatory approach for transitioning energy-poor households away from risky fuels and underperforming technologies to clean and safe energy. The intervention suite is composed of solar power, biogas technology and cool coatings, which are intended for the electrical, thermal and passive cooling requirements of households. Once the interventions have achieved the desired level of effectiveness at demonstration sites, they will be recommended for local and regional roll out. Initial results from an experimental site indicate that the participant communities are finding the proposed interventions useful and relevant to their situations. However, they point out concerns on efficacy, acquisition costs, and maintenance challenges. Technology assessments indicate that the individual intervention components meet baseline performance expectations in terms of cooling, powering appliances, and cooking. Further refinement in the later project phases should lead to an effective level of basic energy service. The lessons learnt could benefit universal goals on sustainable energy for all.