This chapter focuses on developing core themes around electricity capital, providing a conceptual basis for the book. The first theme, the “financialisation of development”, explores the evolving nexus between development finance, private investment and energy poverty eradication in the global South. The second theme, “the recalibration of the state”, interrogates the changing role of the state in electricity systems and its implications for development trajectories. The third term “the datafication of the energy poor” highlights how digital technologies and smart devices are used by market and state actors to govern energy use, instil consumerist behaviours and manage energy poverty. The final theme, “ecologies of repair and waste” engages with the afterlives of renewable energy solutions, focusing on the socio-material impacts of electricity capital on the maintenance, repair and disposal of solar infrastructure. Together, these themes provide a critical lens on the political economy of energy poverty and the shifting landscape of development in the global South, which are unpacked in the selected case studies.