Navigating South Africa’s transition towards renewable energy : pathways, opportunities and structural barriers

Abstract

The energy sector of South Africa is currently undergoing a transformational shift, which is driven by the advancement of technological innovation, and global shift toward sustainable alternative. Although South Africa possesses world-class wind and solar resources and well-designed renewable energy policy framework like the Renewable Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), the transition to renewable energy still remains stagnated by array of political barriers. This thesis examined critically as to why well-crafted renewable energy policy framework like the REIPPPP fail to accomplish its intended implementation outcomes, asking the core research question: How do political barriers influence the transition to renewable energy in South Africa? By employing a qualitative research design, and utilizing the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) framework, this thesis uses document-based analysis, compliment by thematic content analysis of secondary data, which include government reports, institutional reports, and peer-reviewed journal articles in order to investigate the political barriers that are hindering the transition to renewable energy in South Africa. Hence, the findings of this study disclose that the fundamental barriers that are stalling the transition are not merely economical, technical feasibilities, but rather, primarily, political, reflecting through regulatory delays, institution fragmentation, and that of policy instability. Precisely, the lack of collaboration between state institutions, difficult licensing requirements, and along with the stop-start nature of the procurement system acts as a mechanism regime actor uses to resist emerging niche innovations. This research concludes that the transition to renewable energy in South Africa is marked by a struggle for control between emerging renewable niche innovations and that of a conflict-ridden political system that seeks to protect the carbon-intensive status-quo. Therefore, this study provides an immense contribution to the scholarly conversation by redirecting attention from technological and economic feasibility to the political destabilization that is require in order to move to a low-carbon future, providing significant insights for stakeholders and policymakers that are involve in South Africa’s energy landscape.