Research Projects

ACCELERATE is an applied project funded by the DANIDA Fellowship Centre implemented by the Danish Technical University. The project is a collaboration between DTU, Stellenbosch University and the University of Cape Town. The objective of the project is to contribute to an accelerated and just transition to renewable energy in emerging economies, including job creation and economic development of local communities and local industries. The project aims to generate new knowledge on how countries being at an advanced stage in the procurement of RE at which ‘acceleration challenges’, such as resistance from labour unions and declining industries, prevent the acceleration of transitions and require substantial policy and research efforts.

The research is guided by the overall question: how can the design of RE procurement policies accelerate or impede a just energy transition in SA, and what are the consequences in terms of socio-economi development and structural changes in the labour market? The CST leads a work package that investigates how relations are (re)negotiated and power dynamics shift, how the arenas opened by new governance arrangements are taken up by diverse actors, and what new forms of community involvement and local interactions emerge. The CST WP asks: Using the Renewable Energy Development Zones as a geographic delineation starting point, how, and to what extent, do new governance arrangements and policy changes produce (just) energy landscapes and how do these shifts in policies enable or hamper the contribution of RE interventions to economic development in different REDZs?

With a keen focus on how Renewable Energy Development Zones are positioned as a key organising framework, The CST’s work package aims to facilitate a rich exploration of the shifting energy governance landscapes in the South African energy transition.