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This is an interesting new #OpenAccess paper looking at the intersection of energy, development, neighborhood race and class in #SouthAfrica.

They find that #Solar panel installation is by far more common in wealthy and especially white neighborhoods, and that the drop in #NighttimeLight radiance observed from #VIIRS_DNB is lowest in these neighborhoods.

They suggest that solar adoption may reduce the impact of #LoadShedding (i.e. #RollingBlackouts).

I see a few issues with their methodology, but it's nevertheless so interesting to see all these aspects combined with day and nighttime #RemoteSensing.

dx.doi.org/10.1088/2753-3751/a…

A figure from the paper showing the area of solar panels per household on a logarithmic scale, for different income levels and racial makeups. Homes in high income areas have an average of 2.2 square meters of solar panels, while poor and low income homes rarely have solar panels. Similarly, homes in white neighborhoods have an average of 3.5 square meters of solar panels, while homes in Indian neighborhoods have 0.14, Coloured neighborhoods 0.01, and African neighborhoods effectively none. The authors note in the paper that these references to race are a historic legacy of Apartheid, and are used because while Apartheid has ended, it nonetheless established historical patterns of settlement that are only changing slowly.
#solar #openaccess #southafrica #remotesensing #nighttimelight #viirs_dnb #loadshedding #RollingBlackouts
in reply to Christopher Kyba 🇨🇦🇪🇺

One-and-only Allen Versfeld
mastodon - Link to source
One-and-only Allen Versfeld
• •
Just going by the abstract, this seems intuitively obvious to me. Solar installations are expensive enough to be completely out of reach of low-income households (which, historically, are majority black). And it matches my own casual observations as I drive through different neighbourhoods.
in reply to One-and-only Allen Versfeld

Christopher Kyba 🇨🇦🇪🇺
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Christopher Kyba 🇨🇦🇪🇺
• •

@uastronomer I thought it would interest you 🙂

Yes, the overall direction is not surprising, the same is probably true in Germany. But I think there is value on measuring the size and nature of the relationship.

@One-and-only Allen Versfeld
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