Energy4Wellbeing: Experimenting with data-driven approaches to wellbeing in off-grid informal urban settings
Status: Active
Funders: British Academy
Website
Status: Active
Funders: British Academy
Website
The Energy4Wellbeing project aims to pilot and install solar-powered mini-grids in two informal settlements, Jabula and Qando Qando, Cape Town, as a form of affordable, safe and reliable energy. It also gathers data on how solar-powered mini grids improve human health and wellbeing.
Jabula is a small informal settlement (approx. 70 dwellings) in the Philippi area of Cape Town. No dwellings have access to the energy grid in South Africa. The number of dwellings has remained stable over the last decade making it a good settlement to explore the relationship between clean energy access and wellbeing. |
Qando Qando is an informal settlement of approximately 3,500 households. It was founded in 2018 as an extension of a pre-existing existing informal settlement, Khayelitsha, Cape Town. |
It is well-established burning different types of fuel and materials can be detrimental to human health. Households with no access to energy to grid electricity can suffer from poor health and knock-on implications limited energy access that can impact upon resident’s quality of life. In addition to health, limited access to clean and safe energy can also impact education and livelihood opportunities, where work is limited to daylight hours only.
Increased access to clean and safe energy for all is linked to supporting human wellbeing. Enabling access to clean and safe energy can support developing sustainable and healthy communities, reduce inequalities, and improve socio-environmental conditions for households in informal settings.
Increased access to clean and safe energy for all is linked to supporting human wellbeing. Enabling access to clean and safe energy can support developing sustainable and healthy communities, reduce inequalities, and improve socio-environmental conditions for households in informal settings.
Women, girls and children in informal setting are the most likely to suffer from negative health impacts of toxic energy sources as they perform gendered or generational roles in the household used fuel such as cooking. |
Exploring the relationship between clean and safe energy and human wellbeing can establish new knowledge on how human health and wellbeing can be improved in South Africa’s informal settlements and key learnings for developing similar clean and safe energy options elsewhere.
Selling paraffin in Qando Qando for lighting, appliances and the heating and cooling of dwellings
A FOCUS ON RESEARCH
In addition to providing tangible clean and safe solar off-grid energy options in Jabula and Qando Qando, the project has experimented with the use of innovative smartphone-based technologies to gather data during Covid-19.
- Quantitative. Technical record keeping. Load and efficiency reporting. Technology assisted survey data collection via DataHuddle.
- Qualitative. Face-to-face interaction, interviews, community meetings and observation.
PROJECT TEAM
ACADEMIA
United Kingdom
Federico Caprotti
Federico Caprotti is the project lead. Based at the University of Exeter, he is an urban geographer with a central interest in researching urban futures. Federico also led (2016-19) an ESRC Urban Transformations project on energy transitions in South African municipalities. He also led the international 2015-19 Smart Eco-Cities for a Green Economy (SMART-ECO), funded by the ESRC, China's NSFC, and the national research funding agencies of France, Germany, and the Netherlands. |
Catherine Butler
Catherine Butler works on the wellbeing assessment and research side of the project. She is an environmental social scientist at the Department of Geography, University of Exeter. She has a a background in interdisciplinary collaborations. Her work examines processes of environmental governance focusing on major themes including energy and low carbon transitions, and climate change adaptation. Her work has been funded by the ESRC, EPSRC, AND UKERC/NERC. |
South Africa
Jiska de groot
Jiska de Groot manages the South Africa project team. As an energy and development geographer working as Senior Researcher at the African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI), University of Cape Town, she works on the human dimensions of sustainable energy access, energy poverty, gender and capacity building. She has a strong focus on co-designed and participatory research that is policy- and practice-relevant for achieving local development benefits and change processes. |
Mascha Moorlach
Mascha Moorlach works the University of Cape Town. On the project, she is at the interface between engineering and social science approaches to energy and wellbeing, and is responsible for contracting. She holds an MSc in Building Systems from Eindhoven University of Technology, and works on energy efficiency projects in support of the Eskom Demand Side Management Programme and the Skills and Expertise Development programme as part of the Transforming Energy Access project. |
Norman Mathebula
Norman Mathebula is the Project Coordinator. He carries out qualitative data analysis, runs the project website and social media presence, and is responsible for internal project communications and logistics. He works at the African Climate and Development Initiative, University of Cape Town. His background is in environmental management in South Africa, and has a track record working with Co-I de Groot and Zonke Energy on delivering the Jabula settlement baseline survey. |
PRIVATE SECTOR
Hendrik Schloemann
Hendrik Schloemann is a geologist and entrepreneur with more than twenty years of operational and corporate experience in Africa, South America and the United Kingdom. Coming from the mining sector and driven by the potential that renewable energies hold for Africa, he recently re-directed his focus to this sector. His ambition is to prove a model for a micro-utility company that utilises renewable energies to service off-grid communities with electricity. He is the founder of Zonke Energy and growing this social enterprise presently is his main focus. |
Alex Densmore
Alex Densmore is technical director at Zonke Energy, with a decade of experience in off-grid energy. At Simpa Energy India, he led development of pay-as-you-go metering systems. Alex has worked as a consultant and volunteer for universities and manufacturers at the intersection of health, ICT and energy. He holds a Masters degree in power-electronics from the University of Cape Town and a Bachelor's in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. |
Kimenthrie Pillay
Kimenthrie Pillay is a sustainable energy consultant and founder of Thrie Energy Collective: she is responsible for app-based wellbeing data collection and our baseline survey. Thrie Energy Collective works to apply digital methods to enrich energy and development practices. Prior to founding Thrie Energy Collective, Kimenthrie worked on improving and diversifying low-income energy service delivery in the Energy and Climate Change Unit at the City of Cape Town. |
CIVIL SOCIETY
GET IN TOUCH
Contact:
Prof. Federico Caprotti, Co-principal investigator, United Kingdom, [email protected].
Dr Jiska de Groot, Co-principal investigator, South Africa, [email protected].
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Prof. Federico Caprotti, Co-principal investigator, United Kingdom, [email protected].
Dr Jiska de Groot, Co-principal investigator, South Africa, [email protected].
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