Renewable energy in South Africa

Play leapfrog not catch


There are moments in history that shimmer with possibility. Lucky are the few who find themselves at the right time and place to take full advantage of the opportunities these moments bring. South Africa is presented with just such a moment now.

The age of Renewable Energy Technology is ready step onto the world stage, and it will be the lead actor for decades to come. Generating renewable, clean, cheap - possibly totally free - energy will be the technology from which will come the greatest innovations of the near future. Renewable Energy Technology will be the biggest and fastest generator of jobs seen in decades .The nations that make developing Renewable Energy Technology their top priority now; will be the leaders of tomorrow.

Africa has a tremendous advantage in this field precisely because it is energy poor. Before the start of the IT age it was commonly believed that Africa would never catch up with the technology of the West. With the arrival of wireless technology Africa didn’t need to catch up, but within ten years simply leapfrogged into a future that it took the developed world hundreds of years to reach. Today Africa is in the same position to leapfrog over the dirty, unsustainable, polluting energy technology of the developed world and become energy rich without further disturbing the balance of nature. Africa is in a position to be a leader in a world where trade and commerce must factor in the value of clean water and air, a world where people labour to create things that enhance the human condition, without destroying the ecosystem that sustains them.

While Governments of the energy hungry developed world know that the prospect of future climatic chaos can no longer be dismissed by clever spin doctors; they are prevented from taking decisive action in developing and implementing the technology of what will become the next age of progress- the age of clean renewable energy- because of their heavy financial investment in antiquated dirty energy technology.

Africa does not yet have the massive investment in dirty energy, it does not have the outdated energy grids it doesn’t have even a small percentage of the coal burning plants it needs to bring energy to all Africans. This is a blessing in disguise as investment in the development and creation of clean energy could become a major new industry in Africa; providing not just clean energy but clean jobs. Unlike the politicians of developed nations the leaders of Africa do not have to convince their voters to move from old and comfortable dirty energy to clean sustainable energy in order to prevent a still debated future of climatic chaos. African leaders can justify the implementation of completely innovative energy technology with immediate human need.

In the 1998 South African White Paper on Energy the then minister said that the energy policy ‘did not intend to reinvent the wheel’. Eleven years on we have discovered that the wheel is central to the planets climatic problems and reinventing it or throwing it out altogether is very much part of the energy policy of the developed world. Just skimming through the White Paper I came across the following statement. “We must open our economy to global industries, and by supplying cheap efficient energy we can do so”. Yes, quite right, but in the context of today’s thinking so very wrong. Of course global industries are looking at South Africans ample supply of cheap energy in combination with its easy come easy go environmental policies with delight- South Africa is 14th in the world for CO2 emissions and its energy use to production ratio places South Africa 10th in the world for inefficient energy use. For a small, sparsely populated country where 40% of the population are not yet linked to the national grid these figures are shocking.

For dirty fuel hungry industries, that are increasingly forced to shape up environmentally in their own countries, South Africa is the last outpost. Even the Chinese are looking at South Africa for cheap energy (that is about as bad as it gets) and considering what the Chinese managed to do to their own environment within the space of 20 years this does not bode well for the rivers, air and people of South Africa. While China continues to consume Africa’s dirty energy, spewing pollutants into African air; the Chinese government has woken up to the fact that it can no longer pollute its own country the way it has been doing or its people will no longer be able to breath. China is currently in the race to produce clean renewable energy at home and it’s government passes stricter emission and pollutant controls daily. So for whose benefit is China coming to South Africa?

The biggest hurdle in getting South Africa to fully embrace new energy technology is it’s massive coal resource –South Africa is the fourth largest hard coal exporter in the world- these exports bring 23.4 billion ZAR into South Africa annually . A massive part of the annual budget, and a very difficult thing to imagine the country doing without. But the fixation with monetary cost - as it is understood today- prevents decision makers from seeing that the value of clean air, clean water and every other environmental thing that dirty energy impacts on will all be hard costs that will have to be factored into every energy budget in the very near future. In that context it would not be far fetched to state that; within 20 years from now the fully factored cost of energy from fossil fuels will be so high that South Africa’s coal will no longer be the cheapest but most expensive fuel on the planet. It is not inconceivable that producing energy from any fossil fuel will be outlawed or morally condemned- much like whaling is today- and global communities will enforce sanctions on any industry or country that insist on using them.

The world’s great financial power houses are squaring up for a battle to see who will lead this energy revolution, but they are hindered in taking the quantum leap that is required by their existing technology. The biggest end user of dirty energy is the domestic house. While factories might seem to be the biggest consumers; it is in the service of the houses of man that all this energy consumption takes place. But due to the glut of houses in the developed world, changing the way houses are built is not even on their think tank agendas.

The need for housing is well understood to be the social foundation for any country. It provides not only shelter but stability and pride of ownership. The possession of a house settles the society and allows it to grow beyond its basic needs of food and shelter. But in a world where Renewable Energy Technology will soon become central to all thinking, the house should not be seen as just a basic social requirement, but central to the fiscal growth of a country. I believe the house of the future will be the catalyst for all the technologically advances that we will make in the next decades and will sweep away thinking that we believe is entrenched and unchangeable.

Technology moves fast; take the IT example, in 20 years we have moved from a communications Dark Age to a present where we know and accept that we will leap forward with better, smaller, cheaper communications on a daily basis. The age of Renewable Energy Technology will be the same. The coal fired power plants that are being constructed now and are expected to start producing energy in 2023 may never be used.


The chronic housing shortage in South Africa combined with government commitment and control over the building of these houses -and the governments stated aim to provide affordable energy to poverty stricken and rural households- makes the South African RDP house potentially the greatest nursery for clean Renewable Energy Technology in the world. Never has a government been presented with such an opportunity to promote and fund Renewable Energy Technology through tax incentives, design competitions and global partnerships with companies that already have done the technological spade work, but are waiting for a large investor to allow them to scale up.

If the South African Government included a ‘zero energy use’ standard (the house is designed as an energy producing unit which creates all its own energy) in the design requirements of the RDP house, these houses could instantly provide the scale needed to make new energy sources, new building methods and materials more cost effective than traditional brick and mortar fossil fuelled houses. In a society that is not yet dependant on six electrical gadgets to shine its shoes and another four to brush its teeth, the concept of a zero energy use house is totally feasible with existing technology. With a zero energy use standard, the government could conceivably not only provide free energy to these households, but the houses could sell back energy to the national grid, producing income for the RDP household or for the government ; thereby offsetting an initial increase in building costs. The increase in building cost of the RDP housing energy unit should also been seen against the elimination of the need to build more power plants and electrical grids and the incalculable advantages for the health of the people and the planet. With new South African design innovation and production the RDP house could become a self sustaining, energy producing unit that could provide the blueprint for international housing and building standards.


In 2008 the then Minister of Energy claimed that South Africa couldn’t supply the 100 000 solar heating systems they had planned for because South Africa doesn’t have the capacity to build them. So build the factories, create the jobs, invest in the future; the renewable energy race has only just started and nobody on the planet has the answers. The Danish government is in the forefront of wind energy but their only distinction is that they are first. It doesn’t mean that they are the best or even right. Their technology it is based on a 7000 year old design – Chinese were using windmills to power their water pumps in 2000 BC- this is like using carrier pigeons to deliver our emails. The future in clean energy has not yet been written and South Africa with it’s first world infrastructure , the knack of it’s people to be innovative thinkers , it’s culture of entrepreneurship and it’s intricate knowledge of low energy living conditions is perfectly positioned to be a world leader, innovator and exporter of renewable clean energy and clean energy systems.

South African could leapfrog the world and become a leader in clean Renewable Energy Technology. Will you grab the chance?