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Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.
Solar power is a renewable technology with huge benefits for both the Global North and South – but with an unavoidable byproduct: waste. This book – the first to examine the off-grid solar industry in Kenya – questions the technology’s sustainability and is based on ethnographic fieldwork with the independent repair workers at the sharp end of the solar revolution.
Declan Murray proposes that, rather than imposing an external blueprint, energy development projects in the Global South should adopt the approach of the ‘bricoleur’ – which means learning from past experiences, drawing on resources at hand and prioritizing function over form. He concludes with realistic and practical solutions to the problems of solar product breakdown, disposal, repair and recycling.
'Murray’s engaging ethnography of off-grid infrastructures shows how repair critically makes technology work, offering thoughtful alternatives to disposability in development.' Jacob Doherty, University of Edinburgh
‘This delightful ethnography not only offers a rich account of the solar industry in Kenya [but] by placing 'repair' at the centre of solar assemblages and afterlives, it also provides new ways for thinking about the possibilities of waste in developmental economies.’ Hannah Brown, Durham University
'Kenya has long been the site of “innovative” or “ground-breaking” development interventions so it is fascinating to read this close critique of off-grid solar projects through a focus on questions of waste, repair and recycling.' Anne Wacera Wambugu, Strathmore University
Introduction: A Broken World
Part 1: Making and Breaking Products
1. Old Tech Made New
2. Market Devices: Quality Standards and Impact Metrics
3. Breakdowns in the Assemblage
Part 2: Responding to Breakdown
4. Repairing at Home
5. Professional Repair
6. The Illusion of Authorised Repair
Conclusion: The Repair Mindset