Renewable energy in South Africa's minerals-energy complex: a ‘low carbon’ transition?

Abstract

This paper questions the extent to which the introduction of utility-scale, privately generated renewable energy into South Africa's coal-dominated electricity supply can be considered a ‘low-carbon transition’. Rather, the renewable energy projects in question are embedded within and contribute to South Africa's high-carbon, electricity-intensive ‘minerals–energy complex’. An empirical consideration is provided of some of the stakeholders involved in the implementation of the wind industry in South Africa, and the possibilities and pitfalls for its long-term sustainability.

[Les énergies renouvelables dans le complexe mineral énergétique sud-africain : une transition bas carbone ?] Cet article questionne la mesure dans laquelle l'introduction d'une énergie renouvelable provenant de l'autoproduction à grande échelle dans un approvisionnement électrique dominé par le charbon, peut être considérée comme une « transition bas carbone ». Ces projets d’énergie renouvelable sont en fait intégrés et contribuent au « complexe minéral-énergétique » sud-africain à haute teneur en carbone et intensif en électricité. Cet article fournit des données empiriques sur quelques-unes des parties prenantes impliquées dans la mise en place de l'industrie éolienne en Afrique du Sud, ainsi que sur les possibilités et les freins pour sa durabilité à long terme.

Keywords:

• South Africa
• electricity
• minerals–energy complex
• renewable
• political economy
• socio-technical transitions

Mots-clés:

• Afrique du Sud
• complexe minéral–énergétique
• renouvelable
• économie politique
• transitions socio-techniques

Acknowledgements

This paper draws on my PhD research, ‘Power Shifts? The Political Economy of Socio-technical Transitions in South Africa's Electricity Sector’. I am grateful to Peter Newell, Katrina Brown and Heike Schroeder for their supervision. I gratefully acknowledge the support of the UK's Economic and Social Research Council (RES-066-27-0005 and ES/J01270X/1) for the research undertaken for this paper. Thank you also to the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive and helpful feedback.

Note on contributor

Lucy Baker is a Research Associate in the School of Global Studies at the University of Sussex, working on a project ‘The Rising Powers, Clean Development and the Low Carbon Transition in Southern Africa’, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. Lucy has 15 years of experience working as an activist, campaigner and researcher on issues of development, environment and human rights. Her areas of expertise include: the political economy of energy; renewable energy development in low- and middle-income countries; climate change governance and financing; and human rights and natural resources.

Notes

1 This paper draws from approximately 79 semi-structured and key informant qualitative interviews, informal off-record discussions and participant observation undertaken during 2010 and a second visit in late 2013.

2 Municipal distributors purchase their energy and services from Eskom Distribution and supply about two-thirds of the country's customers, who account for 40% of total sales (Odubiyi and Davidson 2004). Municipal distributors are dominated by the large metropolitan distributors such as City Power which reap significant profits from their on-selling.

3 It must be noted that ‘surplus capacity’ is a technical term and does not reflect the fact that until 1993, only one-third of the population was connected to the grid.

4 The ‘reserve margin’ is the excess of installed capacity over peak demand. The appropriate reserve margin is considered by Eskom to be about 15%.

5 US$1,499.625 at an exchange rate of 1 rand = US$0.09998.

6 http://www.gestamprenind.com/en/media/information/gri-renewable-industries-initiates-its-presence-south-africa-new-wind-tower.

7 International Electrotechnical Commission.

8 Technology supply for Round three has not been incorporated here owing to a lack of publicly available information.

9 The South Africa Wind Energy Programme was set up by the Department of Energy with donor funding in 2002 and played a key role in developing the early stages of the regulatory framework and encouraging national on-grid wind development.