South Africa’s renewable-energy transition requires skills development and the educating of the country’s renewable-energy sector stakeholders, says Economic Development Solutions (EDS) head of business development Eckart Zollner.

“In South Africa, there are concerns around an energy industry that’s been built around coal and crude-oil-fired power stations. Stakeholders must, thus, be educated regarding the reasons for and benefits of this energy transition and the associated opportunities.”

EDS plays an important role in the energy transition through its focus on consulting on environmental, social and governance compliance aspects, and ensuring that the transition occurs in the interest of South Africa, particularly affected communities.

The company also ensures that legislation and compliance requirements are met to develop and maintain local upskilling and beneficiation programmes.

Zollner says skills are needed to develop and operate new technologies for the renewable-energy transition, including new solar photovoltaic, concentrated solar, wind, waste and biomass generation

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The country has the potential to accommodate the various renewable-energy technologies, owing to its favourable conditions for these technologies.

The transition can aid economic and industrial growth through generating energy closer to rural areas thereby increasing economic growth in these areas, he adds.

“The country needs to look at new forms of energy generation, which bring not only additional value chains upstream and downstream, but also demand new skills are bought to the table,” adds Zollner.

He explains that South Africa has an adequate skills space in the manufacturing sector, as well as in industrial and commercial processes.

Consequently, the country needs to re-evaluate its tendency to import rather than manufacture products amid recent economic decline and the high unemployment rate, with Zollner suggesting the localisation of manufacturing, which requires reliable energy sources to make headway.

Owing to South Africa’s lack of administrative capacity, which hinders economic opportunities, he stresses the importance of creating educational programmes that benefit all stakeholders by removing the fear that arises from the energy transition.

“There is still a lot of fear coupled with the transition, which speaks to the loss of employment and jobs, but there has been insufficient attention on the new opportunities that it is able to bring.”