Power by All: Alternatives to a privately owned future for renewable energy in South Africa

The report explores four international business models—municipal ownership in Germany, state-owned enterprise (SOE) transition in Denmark, public-private partnerships (PPPs) in Morocco, and cooperatives in the United Kingdom—to identify pathways for increasing renewable energy deployment in South Africa. It argues that while the current private-sector-led model (REIPPPP) has increased capacity, it is insufficient to meet the 1.5°C Paris Agreement target or offset the decommissioning of 24,100 MW of coal plants. The authors suggest that a combination of centralized and decentralized public ownership models can address political opposition from trade unions and parties while scaling up green energy. Key recommendations include reforming Eskom into a 'green utility,' conducting a policy gap analysis, and investigating the financial feasibility of non-private ownership models.

• South Africa's current transition to renewable energy is too slow to meet the 1.5°C target of the Paris Agreement or to replace the energy capacity lost from the planned decommissioning of 24,100 MW of coal power plants.
• Municipal ownership is a viable model for South Africa, as municipalities can leverage existing customer bases and infrastructural knowledge to develop both decentralized small-scale and centralized large-scale projects.
• A fundamental shift in South Africa's electricity sector requires the reform of Eskom, transforming the state-owned utility into a 'green utility' to enable large-scale renewable deployment.
• Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) are highly scalable and replicable, as seen in the REIPPPP, but they require an expanded role for the public sector to satisfy domestic political critics.
• Energy cooperatives, while limited in scale, offer a democratic alternative that encourages 'active citizenry' and can help overcome opposition to privately owned energy.
• The case of Ørsted in Denmark demonstrates that state-owned enterprises can successfully transition from fossil fuels to renewables through committed leadership, staff retraining, and strategic divestment.
• The Moroccan experience with the Ouarzazate I plant shows that PPPs can pool resources for commercially immature technologies like concentrated solar power (CSP), but they risk sidelining local communities during land acquisition.
• UK energy cooperatives provide significant local economic benefits and higher community value than commercial schemes, but they struggle to compete on purely financial terms without specific government support.

APA

Muzondo, C., Bridle, R., Geddes, A., Mostafa, M., & Kühl, J. (2021). Power by All: Alternatives to a privately owned future for renewable energy in South Africa. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2021-04/alternatives-privately-owned-renewable-energy-south-africa.pdf

Chicago

Muzondo, Chido, Richard Bridle, Anna Geddes, Mostafa Mostafa, and Jonas Kühl. Power by All: Alternatives to a privately owned future for renewable energy in South Africa. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2021. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2021-04/alternatives-privately-owned-renewable-energy-south-africa.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Muzondo |first1=Chido |last2=Bridle |first2=Richard |last3=Geddes |first3=Anna |last4=Mostafa |first4=Mostafa |last5=Kühl |first5=Jonas |title=Power by All: Alternatives to a privately owned future for renewable energy in South Africa |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=April 2021 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2021-04/alternatives-privately-owned-renewable-energy-south-africa.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{muzondo2021power, author = {Muzondo, Chido and Bridle, Richard and Geddes, Anna and Mostafa, Mostafa and Kühl, Jonas}, title = {{Power by All: Alternatives to a privately owned future for renewable energy in South Africa}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2021}, month = apr, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2021-04/alternatives-privately-owned-renewable-energy-south-africa.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }