Student: Kori Groenveld
Graduation date: May 2018
Capstone type: Thesis (honors)
Capstone project:
Renewable Energy in Peripheral Nations: Rhetoric v. Reality
Capstone file(s): Show file | Show file
The Global North is increasingly investing in renewable energy projects in the Global South, advertised as a "win-win" sustainable project model that will both mitigate climate change efficiently and give Africa the energy it needs to economically develop. In investigating how sustainability projects reproduce the vices of the broader systems they arise from, I focus on the growing number of renewable energy projects in peripheral nations. I focus on Sub-Saharan Africa as a region that is unique in its economic development and growing focus on renewable energy. In addition to macroeconomic linear regression analysis, the two case studies I look at - the Grand Inga Dam in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Lake Turkana Wind Power Project in Kenya - illustrate how sustainability can serve as both a motivator for climate mitigation and guise for perpetuations of inequality on local, regional, and global scales.