The Republic of South Africa (RSA), often seen as the “Powerhouse of Africa” is facing major
energy challenges. (Un)planned outages, energy shortages, blackouts, high energy tariffs,
many years of underinvestment in power infrastructure and energy poverty in low income
households are the main issues. To eradicate this, the RSA government has rolled out
several energy and energy efficiency programmes and initiatives with a strong emphasis
on off-grid Renewable Energy solutions, Hydrogen Energy, and oil and gas (including shale)
exploration opportunities. Since 2013, most of the country's top construction projects
focussed on Renewable Energy projects. The country's aspiration is to build-up to an “industrial
revolution” incorporating the development of a “Green Economy” which could
significantly boost the nation manufacturing base. The aim of this paper is to provide a fact
based analysis of the current energy landscape in RSA. This can then be used alongside the
aspirations and grand challenges the country has identified to ascertain the scale of the
issues that the country faces. This paper is not set out to “solve” the problems of today's
energy in RSA, but to provide the evidence needed to think more systematically about
them.