Post-apartheid electricity policy and the emergence of South Africa’s renewable energy sector

South Africa’s new renewable energy sector is uniquely embedded within the country’s electricity system and in turn its unique political economy. In this paper I firstly chart major developments in the country’s energy policy and governance since the end of apartheid in order to demonstrate how electricity policy is determined by social, economic, political, and technological factors. Secondly I examine the contested negotiation of key policies, which have been fundamental to the introduction of a renewable energy sector. Finally I consider how the new renewable energy sector has evolved thus far and raise key challenges and concerns for its future developmen