Deploying renewable energy technologies in South Africa presents complex challenges due to interactions between many factors such as determining the best technologies to procure, how much capacity is needed, and where to place projects. Transitioning proven technologies into successfully implemented community projects is also difficult. Systems with renewable energy integration are complex, non-linear, and emergent. To address these challenges, decision makers must prioritize social issues, focus on resilience over robustness, and use transparent reductionism when proceeding with renewable energy plans.

1. 1
Complexity in deploying renewable energy
technologies
A South African Renewable Energy Case Study
Mbali Mabaso
21 November 2016, Frontiers of Low Carbon
Development

2. 2
• How to best transition towards a sustainable growth
trajectory? (complex interactions)
• Which technologies to procure?
• How much capacity is required?
• In which regions should these be placed?

3. 3
How do we transition from a proven/feasible
technology into a successfully implemented
project within a community?

4. 4
“A complex system is defined as being an open or embedded
system; having non-linear and rich interactions; being in a
state of non-equilibrium and displaying complex causality;
displaying emergent properties; and some form of self-
organisation” - (Cilliers, 2000)

5. 5
Source: City of Tshwane (2015)

6. 6
Source: Brent et al. (2009)
 Not accessible
to national grid
 6 Wind
turbines(6kWp)
& 540 solar PV
panels
 112 households
connected
 97kW peak
system
 3kWh per
household, per
month

7. 7
NPO: Engineering Education
Research Spin-off: Utility Scale Solar Thermal
Energy
Social Enterprise: Micro-grid Rural Solar PV
Electrification

8. 8
How to proceed without being paralyzed?
1. Have foresight to make soft issues
priorities (relevant to boundary)
2. Resilience is the new robust for
engineering systems
3. Transparent reductionism

9. 9

10. 10
5 % Hydro + RE
6 % Fuel + others
4 % Nuclear
85 % Coal
Brent AC, Rogers DE, Renewable rural electrification: Sustainability assessment of mini-hybrid off-grid
technological systems in the African context, Renewable Energy (2009), doi:10.1016/j.renene.2009.03.028
Cilliers, P. (2000). What Can We Learn from a Theory of Complexity. Emergence, 2(1), 23 -33.
City of Tshwane, 2015. Framework for a Green Economy Transition, Available at:
http://resilientcities2015.iclei.org/fileadmin/RC2015/files/Framework_for_a_Green_Economy_Transition.pdf.