This paper presents a review of the energy situation in Malawi and discusses renewable energy options that can strengthen Malawi's energy supply and energy security. The paper reviews the availability of renewable energy resources namely solar, wind, biomass, hydro, and geothermal in Malawi; and explores the potential of upscaling and broadening the applications of the existing renewable energy technologies. The paper also analyses challenges facing Malawi's energy sector, and presents a framework for sustainable delivery of renewable energy systems based on political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors (PESTLE). About 89 percent of the Malawi's energy is sourced from traditional biomass mainly fuel wood which has led to fuel wood demand exceeding sustainable wood supply. Only 8 percent of the population in Malawi have access to electricity; however installed capacity of electricity generation is lower than demand which leads to load shedding by the supplier and consequently electricity supply in Malawi is unreliable. Certainly, solar, nontraditional biomass (crop residues and forest residues not burnt on three stone fireplaces, and biogas) and hydro can contribute significantly to Malawi's inadequate and unreliable energy supply. There is also potential for wind and geothermal in the country but further resource mapping is required to comprehensively determine these resources. Although the Malawi Energy Policy lays out steps towards improving the energy supply in the country, unreliable financing mechanisms for large scale energy projects, shortage of trained human resource, lack of coordination among local institutions, unclear regulation enforcement and sometimes political governance impede sustainable delivery of energy projects in Malawi.

The decentralization of governance is increasingly considered crucial for delivering development and is being widely adopted in sub-Saharan countries. At the same time, distributed (decentralized) energy systems are increasingly recognized for their role in achieving universal access to energy and are being promoted in sub-Saharan countries. However, little attention has been paid by governments and energy practitioners to the dynamic interrelationships between national and local government and the role of governance decentralization in transitioning to distributed energy systems. This paper traces the complex relationships between accelerated delivery of distributed energy and decentralized local governance systems. The argument is grounded in an exploration of two different approaches to decentralized energy systems governance in Kenya and Malawi. For Kenya, analysis focuses on the energy sector since the adoption of the new decentralized constitution in 2010. In Malawi, it focuses on the involvement of the authors in piloting Local Authority Energy Officers in districts under the decentralization of Malawian energy policy. Our analysis shows that accelerating the speed and scale of implementation for distributed energy systems and enhancing their sustainability and socio-economic impacts is directly linked to the quality of local and national governance structures and their interrelationships. The paper extends existing work in energy and evidence literacy for policy actors by developing an analytical framework, to enable more effective local governance within energy access initiatives in the Global South.

Background Off-grid and decentralized energy systems have emerged as an alternative to facilitate energy access and resilience in a flexible, adaptable way, particularly for communities that do not have reliable access to centralized energy networks both in rural and urban areas. Much research to date on community energy systems has focused on their deployment in Europe and North America. This paper advances these debates by looking at how community energy systems can support energy transitions in Africa. Specifically, it asks: what role can community energy systems play in the energy transition in East and Southern Africa? Results This article investigates the potential for community energy to foster sustainable and just energy transitions in two countries in East and Southern Africa, namely Ethiopia and Mozambique. To do so, it explores transformations in Ethiopia and Mozambique’s energy systems through the lens of energy landscapes. This concept enables us to situate energy transitions within recent developments in energy governance and to understand current and future possibilities for change through the involvement of communities that currently lack access to reliable and clean energy. Our results show that when countries face the prospects of lucrative energy investments in natural gas or large hydropower, renewables are often deprioritized. Their suitability to address energy challenges and access gaps is de-emphasized, even though there is little evidence that investment in large-scale generation can handle the energy needs of the most disadvantaged groups. Initiatives and policies supporting community-focused renewable energy have remained limited in both countries. They tend to be designed from the top-down and focused on rural areas when they exist. Conclusions Energy transitions in Ethiopia and Mozambique, and many other countries with significant gaps in access to centralized energy systems, require putting inclusivity at the forefront to ensure that energy policies and infrastructure support the well-being of society as a whole. As long as investments in off-grid energy continue to depend on international organizations’ goodwill or development aid programs outside the ambit of national energy plans, energy access gaps will remain unaddressed, and there will not be a genuine and just transition to sustainable energy.