project summary

The overall objective of the project is to contribute to a transition toward sustainability in the energy sector of emerging economies, including sustainable development of local communities and local industries. The project will analyse the developmental implications of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) implemented in South Africa (SA) with a focus on the effects of wind power projects on local industrial development and socio-economic development in local communities. The project will contribute to enhance the research capacity of the younger researchers involved. It will build upon and contribute to significantly advance the literature on sustainability transitions in developing countries through an innovative combination of complementary perspectives on institutional change, global value chains and infant industry development. It will draw on in-depth fieldwork carried out in SA based on qualitative research methods, such as interviews, documents, direct observations and project inventories. Through direct engagement with key policy makers and stakeholders, the project will seek to ensure that local developmental impacts are prioritized and ensured in renewable energy tendering schemes currently being implemented in SA, other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and internationally. The project will contribute to socially inclusive models of implementation by private companies involved in large-scale wind power projects by cooperating with the wind industry associations in Denmark and SA and through direct consultations. Finally, the project serves as a pilot research for a subsequent five year research programme, which will be up-scaled to include solar PV, concentrated solar power (CSP) and hydro-power, and additional countries in SSA, such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana and Malawi.

Facts

PERIOD: 1 April 2018 to 1 January 2021
PROJECT CODE: 17-M04-DTU
COUNTRIES: South Africa
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Ivan Nygaard
TOTAL GRANT: 5,000,000 DKK