How Has the Current Electricity Crisis in South Africa Affected the Development of Renewable Energy within the Independent Power Producer Procurement Programmes?

Sammanfattning: This thesis examines the effects of South Africa’s electricity crisis on the government-driven development of renewable energy from 2007 to 2023 by testing the applicability of the energy security framework. The electricity crisis presents itself through regular electricity cuts, extreme power tariff rises and a lack of long-term sustainability due to the high reliance on coal and Eskom, the monopolistic electricity utility. Consequently, South Africa’s economic development and social well-being are greatly affected. Incorporating quantitative and qualitative evidence from government and Eskom documents, independent reports as well as newspaper articles, this thesis demonstrates that South Africa’s energy insecurity drives the use of renewables as a supplementary energy source in the national grid. It argues that green energies’ decreasing prices, natural abundance and diverging risk structure compared to fossil sources as well as the IPP programmes’ lauded design have supported this. In contrast, exhausted national grid capacities, Eskom’s monopoly and influence in renewable procurement as well as corruption scandals have created severe delays in the progress of renewables in South Africa, thus presenting major barriers to change.