South Africa’s Solar Boom Is Worsening Inequality

If you want something done, sometimes you just have to do it yourself. That’s the attitude taken by many South African households and companies as they invest in alternative-energy sources to avoid blackouts and soaring electricity tariffs. This movement has clear winners and losers.

Fed up with weathering the worst power crisis on record as state-owned utility Eskom struggles with debts and aging coal-fired power plants, businesses are finding ways to generate their own electricity. Most recently, Africa’s biggest mobile phone group, MTN, announced that it’ll spend 1.9 billion rand ($101 million) by the middle of the year on generators, batteries and renewable energy.