The South African government’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) has been a key driver of the growth of renewable electricity projects in South Africa. It was designed to facilitate private sector investment in renewable energy projects that connect to the national electricity grid through a competitive tender process. Since its inception, 116 projects have been approved, in seven bid windows (blue circles on the chart). The Northern Cape and Eastern Cape are rich in solar and wind energy potential and are the site of many of the earlier REIPPPP projects, but there’s been a big drop in registrations of government projects in those provinces because of the shortage of grid capacity. The bigger energy projects are now being registered in Limpopo and the Free State, where there is still grid capacity.Thanks to years of loadshedding, private businesses and residents have also started to invest in solar and other energy generation alternatives. A project must be registered with the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) if it is to be connected to the electricity grid. By February 2025, Nersa had registrations with a total installed capacity of 11,857MW (see yellow circles) – most of it is solar.
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