Abstract
Like other countries, South Africa is currently transitioning its energy system from one that is dominated by fossil fuels to one that is dominated by renewable energy sources. Its energy transition is both a socio-technical transition and a sustainability transition guided by specific sustainability goals that are related to the economy, environment, governance and social well-being sustainability. Part and parcel of this transition is the development of renewable energy infrastructure. As part of the transitioning energy socio-technical system, renewable energy infrastructure development projects are also expected to meet the sustainability goals driving the energy transition.
Currently, the country uses Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to assess the sustainability of renewable energy infrastructure projects. But EIA has been criticised for failing to fully assess the impact of projects on all sustainability goals. Its main criticism being its focus on the achievement of environmental sustainability goals instead of giving equal priority to all sustainability goals. By focusing on environmental goals, the contribution of a project on achieving other sustainability goals is not fully recognised and assessed. Therefore there is a need for an alternative more reliable and comprehensive way of tracking the achievement of all the sustainability goals underlying the energy transition.
The aim of this research is to fill this gap by creating a sustainability assessment criteria for renewable energy infrastructure development projects that is based on the sustainability goals underlying South Africa’s energy transition. This aim is achieved through a mixed methods research design. The qualitative arm of the research uses literature review to identify the sustainability goals underlying South Africa’s energy transition (first objective), to identify the factors that contribute to renewable energy infrastructure sustainability (second objective) and to operationalise these factors into the assessment criteria (third objective). The quantitative arm of the research uses a survey to collect data and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation
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Modelling (PLS-SEM) to analyse the data and validate the criteria. Through a hypothetical model developed in its fourth objective, this data is used to test the hypothesis that: the sustainability goals that underlie South Africa’s just energy transition have an impact on the sustainability of renewable energy infrastructure development projects mediated by sustainable project management and stakeholder involvement throughout the project. This is the fifth research objective.
The results show that, indeed, the sustainability goals that underlie South Africa’s transition have a direct and positive impact on the sustainability of renewable energy infrastructure development projects. They also show that sustainable project management and stakeholder involvement have a direct and positive impact on these projects. From these results a sustainability assessment criterion that is based on the sustainability goals, sustainable project management and stakeholder involvement is created.
Therefore, in addition to the sustainability goals, the assessment criteria incorporates sustainable project management and stakeholder involvement as part of achieving sustainability in these projects. Sustainable project management ensures the project product and processes are sustainable. And stakeholder involvement ensures that the project secures legitimacy and social license to operate and delivers values throughout its lifecycle.
The research adds sustainable project management and stakeholder involvement sustainability dimensions to the commonly adopted four-dimensional (economy, environment, government, social well-being dimensions) representation of sustainability in renewable energy and energy transition studies. Thus, introducing a six-dimensional conceptualisation of sustainability to theory. Its contribution sustainability assessment profession and practice, is the introduction of a sustainability assessment criteria that can be further developed into assessment process to be used as an alternative to EIA.