Building Innovation Capabilities for Sustainable Industrialisation : Renewable Electrification in Developing Economies

This book argues that renewable electrification in developing countries provides important opportunities for local economic development, but new pathways are required for turning these opportunities into successful reality.

Building Innovation Capabilities for Sustainable Industrialisation offers a novel input into the debate on development of capabilities for sustainable industrialisation and delivers key insights for both researchers and policy makers when it comes to the question of how to increase the economic co-benefits of renewables expansion. The chapters in the book use a tailored analytical framework in their studies of renewable electrification efforts in Kenya and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa. They draw on a mix of project, sector and country level case studies to address questions such as: What capabilities are developed through on-going renewable electrification projects in developing economies? How can the expansion of renewable electrification be supported in a way that also encourages sustainable economic development? What role do international linkages (South-South and North-South) play and what role should they play in the greening of energy systems in developing economies? The authors provide a new understanding of how green transformation and sustainable industrialisation can be combined, highlighting the opportunities and constraints for local capability building and the scope for local policy action.

This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of development studies, energy studies, sustainability and sustainable development, as well as practitioners and policy makers working in development organisations and national governments.

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781003054665, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Rasmus Lema, DPhil in Development Studies (Sussex), Associate Professor, Department of Business and Management, Aalborg University and Senior Visiting Associate Professor, College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg. Principle Investigator of the IREK project.

Margrethe Holm Andersen, PhD in Social Science (Aalborg), Senior Advisor in Innovation and Development, Department of Politics and Society, Aalborg University. Member of the IREK research team and the IREK management group.

Rebecca Hanlin, PhD in Science and Technology Studies (Edinburgh), Non-Resident Fellow at the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), Innovation and Development Specialist for AfricaLics, Visiting Fellow at a number of universities in Europe and Africa. Member of the IREK research team and the IREK management group.

Charles Nzila, PhD in Applied Science (Gent), Senior Lecturer at Moi University. Co-Project Investigator of the IREK project and member of the IREK management group.