ABSTRACT

Focusing on the adoption of rooftop solar photovoltaics (PV) by high-income households and businesses in the Western Cape, South Africa, the article analyzes its effects on the hybridization of urban electricity systems and the ability of municipalities to drive a just transition in cities where inequality remains very high. By reducing municipal electricity sales, decentralized solar technologies threaten the surpluses generated from charges paid by grid customers, which are essential to subsidize electricity services for the poor and support other municipal services. Based on fieldwork in four Western Cape cities, the paper shows that municipalities are implementing a variety of local arrangements (regulatory, tariff, and technical) to control distributed electricity generation and are seeking, with mixed success, to avoid a post-carbon transition model that undermines grid benefits by creating a new energy divide.

摘要

本文重点关注南非西开普省高收入家庭和企业对屋顶太阳能光伏 (PV) 的采用，分析了其对城市电力系统混合化的影响以及市政当局推动城市公平转型的能力不平等程度仍然很高的地方。通过减少市政电力销售，分散式太阳能技术威胁到电网客户支付的费用产生的盈余，这对于补贴穷人的电力服务和支持其他市政服务至关重要。基于在西开普省四个城市的实地调查，该论文表明，市政当局正在实施各种地方安排（监管、关税和技术）来控制分布式发电，并且正在寻求，取得了喜忧参半的成功，