Elite household perceptions of social justice and off-grid electricity: A case study of elite households in Cape Town, South Africa.

Abstract

In the context of South Africa’s deep-rooted energy inequality, this study critically interrogates the relationship between wealthy households’ defection from the electricity grid and the evolving concept of social justice in Cape Town. While the installation of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems by affluent residents is often framed as a sustainable and autonomous response to state failure and rolling blackouts, this research explores the broader socio-political consequences of such practices. Through thematic analysis of interviews and participant observations, it reveals how solar adoption, far from being a neutral act, is reshaping urban energy infrastructures in ways that entrench privilege and exacerbate marginalization. This study conceptualizes social justice from the ground up, questioning whether energy self-sufficiency for the wealthy can truly be just in a city grappling with poverty, infrastructural decay, and fiscal strain. It argues that while the solar transition among elites reduces dependency on a failing grid, it simultaneously accelerates revenue losses for municipalities undermining their ability to subsidize electricity for low-income households. As a result, the grid becomes both materially and symbolically fragmented, giving rise to a semi-grid that privileges the few while destabilizing collective equity. By focusing on the under-researched solar practices of the wealthy, the study offers critical insights into the infrastructural, political, and social implications of decentralized energy transitions in the Global South. It contributes to the broader discourse on just transitions by exposing how alternative energy technologies, when unregulated and unequally distributed, risk reinforcing the very inequities they aim to dismantle. In doing so, it challenges dominant narratives of progress and sustainability, and calls for energy governance frameworks that foreground justice and inclusivity, across social divides.