Enhancing South Africa’s Just Energy Transition

This industry brief by GreenCape explores how Alternative Service Delivery (ASD) can support South Africa's Just Energy Transition (JET). It argues that decentralised, community-driven models can bridge service delivery gaps in energy, water, sanitation, and waste management, particularly in underserved areas and coal-dependent regions like Mpumalanga, to ensure a more inclusive transition to a low-carbon economy.

• South Africa's Just Energy Transition (JET) aims to decarbonise the energy sector while simultaneously addressing socio-economic issues including poverty, inequality, and unemployment.
• The implementation of the JET faces several critical barriers: infrastructure limitations regarding technical capacity for renewable energy, financial constraints affecting revenue collection and investment, community resistance in coal-dependent areas, and existing service delivery gaps in informal settlements.
• Alternative Service Delivery (ASD) is a community-centred model based on Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) that provides decentralised solutions for essential services where traditional government-led methods fail. It focuses on three key principles: decentralisation, public-private partnerships, and active community participation.
• ASD aligns with JET objectives by replacing hazardous energy sources—such as coal, paraffin, candles, and wood—with decentralised solutions like solar home systems, which improves health outcomes and reduces carbon emissions.
• The Nomzamo Agri Village project in Ermelo, Mpumalanga, serves as a replicable case study for ASD in a JET zone. The project implemented solar streetlights and solar home systems, which resulted in improved energy access, reduced crime and fire hazards, and the fostering of local entrepreneurship.
• Mpumalanga is identified as a critical province for the JET because it contains some of South Africa's largest coal-fired power plants, making the transition away from coal essential for national decarbonisation goals.
• GreenCape's Alternative Service Delivery Unit (ASDU) has implemented four projects to date, including solar energy systems for homes, solar-powered streetlights, and urban agriculture opportunities.

APA

GreenCape (2025). Enhancing South Africa’s Just Energy Transition. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/JET-ASD-Industry-Brief_FINAL.pdf

Chicago

GreenCape. Enhancing South Africa’s Just Energy Transition. 2025. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/JET-ASD-Industry-Brief_FINAL.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=GreenCape |title=Enhancing South Africa’s Just Energy Transition |date=2025 |url=https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/JET-ASD-Industry-Brief_FINAL.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{greencape2025enhancing, author = {{GreenCape}}, title = {{Enhancing South Africa’s Just Energy Transition}}, institution = {GreenCape}, year = {2025}, url = {https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/JET-ASD-Industry-Brief_FINAL.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }