Abstract

With 600 million people without access to energy in Sub-Saharan Africa, the nascent off-grid solar industry is facing an exponential growth driven by digitalization. While the socioeconomic impact is positive, on the other hand there is the problem of repairing and recovering components such as batteries and photovoltaic modules in remote villages. It could be the perfect breeding ground to put into practice a self-regenerating economy in a Sub-Saharan market, where the principles of the circular economy and the need to reduce waste are already inherent in the local cultural matrices.