Rural Electrification and Transition to Clean Cooking: The Case Study of Kanyegaramire and Kyamugarura Solar Mini-Grid Energy Cooperatives in the Kyenjojo District of Uganda

Abstract

Access to electricity is fundamental to ensure basic human activities and is a direct measure of energy poverty. In recent years, significant steps towards rural electrification have been fostered by intergovernmental organisations with the scope to ensure energy security to all—especially rural people, the poor and the vulnerable. Cooking is a basic daily household activity and is strictly related to energy security. Nevertheless, in most developing countries and the rural world, cooking is still done through polluting, ineffective and dangerous kerosene stove and animal manure and primordial tools. To tackle this issue, pushed-down energy policies calibrated to enhance environmental, social and economic performances of rural households have to face ancient habits. This book chapter aims to analyze the feasibility of environmental preservation policies within cooking activities in Kyenjojo District of Uganda in terms of sustainability performance. The study is predicated on the field survey data with 63 households. The performed analyses indicate that electrification has not substantially changed the cooking behaviors of the households. Furthermore, the study analyses the causes for the lagging transition to clean energy use in cooking. We find that besides behavioural and taste aspects affordability and level of education play an important role in the context of the household-level energy transition. This significance of education may be imputed to the fact that poor rural people have not been educated about environmental protection and paves the way for new research explorations, bottom-up projects, sustainable development policies and energy transition modeling.