Navigating Pathways for Community Renewable Electricity in Rural Areas: Exploring Stakeholders’ Perspectives on Shape Community Project

Abstract

The transition to community renewables is supported as a panacea for the energy infrastructure challenges encountered by off-grid rural communities.  Government and development agencies are encouraging the acceleration of the transition process through the development of pilot community projects. While relative success has been recorded in some of these projects, the transition pace is quite slow in developing countries. This raises a number of questions on various aspects of such an energy transition. Of relevance to this paper is the governance approach through which community projects are developed. This paper draws on Strategic Niche Management (SNM) to investigate the planning and implementation of such a project in Shape, a rural community in Nigeria. Data was gathered from 24 relevant actors in the electricity industry. Results from the semi-structured interviews revealed the non-involvement of key stakeholders. On local community engagement, the study revealed evidence of passive involvement to inform locals and seek unskilled local labour.