South Africa has long recognised the need to eliminate energy poverty, and significant progress has been made since 1996. With the recent global outcry about the use of sustainable and clean energy sources for human and ecological development, it has become essential for countries to upscale the use of non-grid electrification in order to effectively and sustainably eradicate energy poverty. South Africa implements different non-grid electrification programmes which focuses on ensuring universal access to clean energy by all, with one of these initiatives being the Solar Home Systems Programme. This study aims to contribute to academic discussion and knowledge about the role that solar home systems can play in bringing change on the current status of the energy poverty eradication initiatives which negatively affect the environment and the people. The study used a qualitative approach in assessing how the Solar Home Systems Programme contributes to energy poverty eradication and environmental preservation if managed in line with ecological governance principles. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of 40 households in Limpopo and officials from government departments in the province as well as a service provider responsible for the roll-out and maintenance of solar home systems in Limpopo. Framed within the ecological economics theory which advocates for ecological and environmental solutions that take into consideration the future generation, the study established that the solar home systems can eradicate energy poverty and contribute to the protection of the environment if managed in line with ecological governance principles. The study further revealed that the Solar Home Systems Programme in South Africa failed due to lack of proper governance systems that provide solutions for the future as the programme was short-term focused and lacked proper ecological governance systems. In order for the solar home systems to contribute to energy poverty eradication and environmental protection, the study recommends a total overhaul of the programme which includes ensuring that the provision of SHSs is not viewed as a temporary measure that is only meant for poor rural households but a long-term and sustainable initiative.
Top1. Introduction
Access to energy is central to meeting the economic needs of the country and basic social needs for households. South Africa’s experience of inequality in energy provision during the apartheid period was characterised by differentiation in the provision of infrastructure (both formal dwellings and electricity grid) and a visible separation between the lower, middle and upper classes, with the benefits focused on the minority (Azimoh, 2016). In order to address this inequality, one of the country's goals entrenched in the energy policy is to reach universal access to households’ electricity. Consequently, this has led to an increase in energy consumption over the years as more households receive electricity connections (Wentzel, 2005). Meanwhile, the increase in the electrification rate (i.e. the number of households electrified), has resulted in the country’s further experience of an increase in the emissions of greenhouse gasses. This is because more than 90% of electricity in South Africa is generated through coal burning (Eskom, 2018) which emits greenhouse gasses. As a result, the country has been rated the 12th largest Green House Gas (GHG) emitter globally and the most carbon-intensive developing economy in the world (Parr, Swilling and Henry, 2018). This challenge can be addressed through the use of low carbon-intensive energy sources. Accessibility of energy through SHSs, therefore, provides equal opportunities for households to receive clean and reliable energy that is affordable if they are managed in line with ecological governance principles (Azimoh, 2016). Ecological governance is not only about addressing energy poverty for social benefits, but it also focuses on ensuring sustainable and affordable access to energy and addresses ecological and environmental effects of conventional sources of energy. This is the main argument of ecological economists and proponents of renewable and clean energy technologies.
According to Feron (2016), the notion of social justice is the main driver to energy access, because it determines the fairness or inequality between different groups, with the poor being the most affected by the inequality. To address the energy, divide for rural households, the South African Government established the SHSs programme which provides basic electricity for lighting, charging phones, watching a black and white television set and listening to the radio. The argument is that energy access through SHSs is easy as it is affordable as well as subsidised through the government’s Free Basic Alternative Electricity Policy (FBAE)which reduces the cost that consumers would pay to access the technology and for daily operations (Department of Minerals and Energy, 2007). Furthermore, access to solar energy in South Africa is encouraged as the country has a daily solar irradiation averaged between 5.7kWh/m2 per day and 8.0kWh/m2 per day which is higher (Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies, 2014), thereby making solar energy effective and favourable.
As postulated by Methvin and Philipp (2017), the majority of South Africans who lack access to grid electricity are poor households who live in remote areas where it is claimed to be not viable for the grid to be installed. In these areas, solar energy, which is part of the Non-Grid Electrification Programme, becomes the most viable source that can easily be accessed by poor households. The use of SHSs must however, not only focus on the motives of affordability for the grid-based electricity by both government and households. Instead, meeting the households’ energy demand as part of universal access must take into consideration sustainability and contribution towards addressing the global climate change phenomena. This is also supported by the United Nations Environmental Programme (2011) which argues that the use of coal or fossil fuels in generating electricity in order to meet universal access undermines the ecosystem as it causes degradation and countries cannot continue to depend on coal to generate electricity.