scholarly journals Post-Apartheid Electricity Policy and the Emergence of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Sector

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy Baker
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Energy Sector ◽  
Electricity Sector ◽  
Supply Side ◽  
Renewable Electricity ◽  
Technological Factors ◽  
Electricity System ◽  
Side Constraints

This chapter situates South Africa’s new renewable energy sector within the context of the country’s electricity system and in turn its unique political economy. The author charts major developments in the country’s energy policy and governance since the end of apartheid and shows how electricity policy is determined by economic, political, and technological factors. Focusing on shifts that have taken place in the country’s electricity governance and policy-making, from a period of generation surplus in 1980s to the supply-side constraints of the present, the chapter asks how, why, and when South Africa’s renewable electricity sector has emerged. The author examines the contested negotiation of key policies, which have been fundamental to the introduction of a renewable energy sector, considers how the new renewable energy sector has evolved thus far, and raises key challenges and concerns for its future development.

In pursuit of diverse energy futures: The political economy of electricity in Senegal

2021 ◽  
pp. 251484862110348
Author(s):  
Mara van den Bold
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Universal Access ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Electricity Sector ◽  
The Political ◽  
Oil Markets ◽  
Rural Access

In recent years, Senegal has proactively pursued the expansion of renewable energy generation, particularly from solar and wind. In addition to starting exploration of offshore liquefied natural gas, the expansion in renewable energy is posited as a way to help the country move toward low(er) carbon development, reduce dependence on volatile oil markets, and improve reliable (and especially rural) access to electricity. To achieve these objectives, the electricity sector has continuously undergone structural reforms to improve its financial viability and to achieve objectives around universal access to electricity, particularly by increasing private sector participation in electricity generation. Through the lens of “electricity capital,” this paper examines the implications of reforms in the electricity sector for processes of accumulation, in a context of efforts to improve environmentally sustainable development. It asks how capital in the electricity sector is constituted and operates in the Senegalese context, who has power in shaping how it operates, and how this has influenced the potential for achieving a fair and equitable transition to a low(er) carbon energy system. This paper draws on recent work in political ecology on energy transitions and emerging literature on the political economy of electricity, as well as on analysis of policy and technical documents and semi-structured interviews carried out with those involved in the energy sector between 2018 and 2020. Findings suggest that even though the Senegalese government has set clear objectives for the electricity sector that are based on principles of equity, environmental sustainability, and justice, the current power relations and financing arrangements taken on by the state and other actors active in the sector has, paradoxically, led to an approach that risks undermining these very principles.

scholarly journals An Overview of the Portuguese Energy Sector and Perspectives for Power-to-Gas Implementation

Energies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 3259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Miguel ◽  
Adélio Mendes ◽  
Luís Madeira
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Power Production ◽  
Energy Sector ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Renewable Electricity ◽  
Promising Alternative ◽  
Renewable Power ◽  
Opposite Trend ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
Power To Gas

Energy policies established in 2005 have made Portugal one of the top renewable power producers in Europe, in relative terms. Indeed, the country energy dependence decreased since 2005, although remaining above EU-19 and EU-28 countries in 2015 (77.4% vs. 62.4% vs. 54.0%, respectively). Data collected from governmental, statistical, and companies’ reports and research articles shows that renewables and natural gas assumed a growing importance in the Portuguese energy mix along time, while oil followed an opposite trend. Recently, the country remarkably achieved a full 70-h period in which the mainland power consumed relied exclusively on renewable electricity and has several moments where power production exceeds demand. Currently, the main option for storing those surpluses relies on pumped hydro storage plants or exportation, while other storage alternatives, like Power-to-Gas (PtG), are not under deep debate, eventually due to a lack of information and awareness. Hence, this work aims to provide an overview of the Portuguese energy sector in the 2005–2015 decade, highlighting the country’s effort towards renewable energy deployment that, together with geographic advantages, upholds PtG as a promising alternative for storing the country’s renewable electricity surpluses.

Conclusion

Mapping Power ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 340-363
Author(s):  
Navroz K. Dubashsunila ◽  
Sunila S. Kale ◽  
Ranjit Bharvirkar
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
The Political ◽  
Renewable Electricity ◽  
Access Price ◽  
Relative Ability ◽  
Virtuous Cycle ◽  
Do So

The concluding chapter uses the analytic framework of the volume to explain the political economy of electricity. First, social welfare concerns continue to play an important part in shaping Indian electricity; policy making in the sector will need to engage these concerns rather than wish them away. Second, successful states have managed to turn a vicious cycle or low level equilibrium between electoral and electricity outcomes into a virtuous cycle, by delivering on a combination of access, price, and service. Third, past reform efforts reform efforts have failed to seriously engage state-specific political contexts but instead sought to carve out zones of depoliticized decision making. We categorize the state cases based on their relative ability to do so. Finally, the conclusion reflects on how a political mapping of power can help understand the future of Indian electricity as it negotiates a growing turn to renewable electricity.

scholarly journals Analysis of Cost-Optimal Renewable Energy Expansion for the Near-Term Jordanian Electricity System

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (22) ◽  
pp. 9339
Author(s):  
Simon Hilpert ◽  
Franziska Dettner ◽  
Ahmed Al-Salaymeh
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Wind Energy ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Electricity Sector ◽  
Electricity System ◽  
High Dependency ◽  
Optimal Extension ◽  
Growing Economy ◽  
Energy Share

Jordan is affected by an ever changing environment in the midst of climate change, political challenges, a fast growing economy and socio-economic pressures. Among other countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa, Jordan is facing a number of electricity related challenges, such as a rising energy demand, high dependency on fossil fuel imports and management of local, fossil and renewable resources. The paper presents an analysis based on an open source optimisation modelling approach identifying a cost-optimal extension of the Jordanian electricity system with growing demand projections until 2030 utilising pumped hydro energy storage and determining the costs of different CO2 mitigation pathways. The results highlight the large potential of renewable energy for the cost effective, environmentally friendly and energy independent development of the Jordanian electricity sector. A share of up to 50% renewable energy can be achieved with only a minor increase in levelised cost of electricity from 54.42 to 57.04 $/MWh. In particular, a combination of photovoltaic and pumped hydro storage proved to be a superior solution compared to the expansion of existing shale oil deployments due to high costs and CO2 emissions. Aiming for a more than 50% renewable energy share within the electricity mix calls for substantial wind energy deployments. In a system with a renewable energy share of 90%, wind energy covers 45% of the demand.

Neoliberal energy transitions: The renewable energy boom in the Chilean mining economy

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 951-975 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Furnaro
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Mining Industry ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Energy Sector ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Energy Transitions ◽  
Low Carbon Energy

Political-economic approaches are increasingly used in the study of low-carbon energy transitions. This article brings attention to two dimensions that have been less explored by this scholarship. First, research on the political economy of energy transitions, which has centered on the fossil fuel industry and to a lesser degree on the residential sector, has not sufficiently considered the role that industrial energy users play in resisting and in shaping energy transitions. Second, empirical analyses have focused on the limitations to a transition toward low-carbon energy systems that neoliberal forms of energy governance generate, thereby leaving unexplored cases in which neoliberal restructurings enacted by the state accelerate energy transitions. By analyzing the relationship between the recent boom in renewables energy investments in Chile and the energy consumption practices of the copper mining industry, I show the importance that changes in energy systems can have in the reproduction of specific regimes of accumulation. Drawing on insights from the political economy of energy and the scholarship on the role of socio-natural reconfigurations in addressing capitalist crisis tendencies, I argue that the recent changes in the energy sector in Chile can be understood as a “socioecological fix” to alleviate the threatened accumulation process of its mining economy. I describe the new energy policy implemented in Chile to show how the neoliberal model for promoting renewable energies and the increased financialization of the renewable energy sector, while successful in quickly stimulating a utility-scale renewable energy sector, has also created socioecological impacts and uncertainties in energy forecasts.

The Energy Politics of South Africa

2020 ◽  
pp. 710-729
Author(s):  
Lucy Baker ◽  
Jesse Burton ◽  
Hilton Trollip
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Electricity Sector ◽  
Renewable Electricity ◽  
National Planning ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Energy Politics ◽  
State Capture

This chapter explores key processes within South Africa’s electricity sector that evolved under the presidency of Jacob Zuma from his inauguration in 2009 until he was forced out of office in early 2018. These processes include the introduction of a national planning process for electricity; the implementation of a procurement program for privately generated renewable electricity; and a highly controversial nuclear procurement program, since scrapped following Zuma’s departure. The chapter’s exploration takes place within the context of a decade of “state capture” and corruption. Drawing from a wide range of literature on South Africa’s energy policy, it advances perspectives of the “minerals-energy complex” (Fine and Rustomjee 1996), which has been a dominant framework for the analysis of the country’s political economy and its electricity sector. The chapter concludes with a research agenda that brings together the literature on sociotechnical transitions with that of analyses of the nature of the state.

scholarly journals Using Biofuels for Highly Renewable Electricity Systems: A Case Study of the Jatropha curcas

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (15) ◽  
pp. 3028 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petr Procházka ◽  
Luboš Smutka ◽  
Vladimír Hönig
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Jatropha Curcas ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Electricity Sector ◽  
Biofuel Production ◽  
Renewable Energy Resources ◽  
Renewable Electricity ◽  
Electricity Systems

Recent movements for the decarbonization of the electricity sector have become a priority for many countries around the world and will inevitably lead to the sharp decline of fossil-fuel-based energy. Energy from fossil fuels is to be replaced by renewable energy sources (RES), although the transition will neither be cheap nor smooth. One sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels and which will take a considerable share in the increasing supply of renewable energy resources is biofuels. There are various types of biofuels used in practice; however, biodiesels represent one of the most popular and widespread ones. This paper focuses as a case study on the byproducts of Jatropha curcas, a crop and a plant that is already used for biofuel production and which is subsequently employed in electricity generation in Jatropha curcas producing regions. This paper identifies the limitations and prospects of Jatropha curcas utilization. Also, Jatropha curcas is compared to other materials suitable for biomass generation. An economic analysis for a 2 MW biofuel powerplant was conducted incorporating various market-related risks. The study shows that at current prices, net profitability can be achieved using Jatropha curcas byproducts for producing electricity.

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