Browsing by Author "Tait, Louise"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Energy futures modelling for African cities: selecting a modelling tool for the SAMSET project
    (Energy Research Centre, University of Cape Town., 2014) Tait, Louise; McCall, Bryce; Stone, Adrian
    Urbanisation is occurring fastest in developing countries, with the least developed countries expected to have the highest population growth rates between 2010 and 2050 (Madlener and Sunak, 2011). Cities in these countries are going to increasingly be important sites of energy demand and associated emissions. Much of the literature about sustainable urban energy transitions has to date focussed on developed country contexts; as the current sources of greatest emissions, this makes sense. In looking forward, however, if the energy demand and emissions of developing country cities increase to that equivalent of many western cities today, we may be unable to avoid catastrophic climate change. Transitioning energy infrastructures and associated urban systems is a long-term process. In the absence of forward planning, developing country cities run risks of infrastructural and urban planning lock-in to systems that are unsustainable (Olazabal and Pascual, 2013).
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    Estimating greenhouse gas emissions associated with achieving universal access to electricity in South Africa
    (Energy Research Centre, University of Cape Town., 2012) Tait, Louise; Winkler, Harald
    Climate change, energy security and achieving universal electricity access for all households are all pressing issues that South Africa must address. These objectives need not be trade-offs, however, and achieving electricity access for the poor does not justify the building of large coal-fired power stations or threaten South Africa’s climate change objectives. This paper estimates the electricity demand from the residential sector to 2020 resulting from universal access, and finds that electricity for low-income households would constitute only a small addition to total electricity demand and would represent only a minor portion of output from the coal-fired power station, Medupi. Furthermore, emissions from the additional electricity consumed by newly connected households would have a negligible impact on South Africa’s emissions profile.
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    Investigating household energy poverty in South Africa by using unidimensional and multidimensional measures
    (2018) Mbewe, Samson; Madhlopa, Amos; Tait, Louise; Moyo, Alfred
    The ability to access affordable, reliable and modern energy services presents a pathway to social and economic development. Yet, the lack of access to modern energy services is widespread in sub-Saharan Africa and developing Asia. Following the declaration to achieve universal access to energy by 2030 in the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals – several tools have emerged tracking and monitoring energy access and energy poverty. Earlier efforts have focused on measuring energy poverty from a unidimensional perspective while recent efforts have focused on a multidimensional measurement. However, the growing trend in tracking and monitoring energy poverty using multidimensional indicators has been applied limitedly in the context of South Africa. Part of this has been associated with the lack of detailed and reliable survey data. With access to detailed survey data, this study aimed to evaluate household energy poverty in South Africa by using both unidimensional and multidimensional measures. This study constructed the energy budget share, also known as Tenth-Percentile Rule (TPR) (unidimensional) and the multidimensional energy poverty index (MEPI) using data from wave 1 (2008) and wave 4 (2014-2015) of the National Income Dynamic Study (NIDS) of South Africa. A 10 percent threshold was used for the energy-budget share while a 0.3 cutoff point was used for the MEPI. This study first computed national-level estimates of household energy poverty, and subsequently decomposed these estimates by province, household income poverty status and household location (urban versus rural). A sensitivity analysis was performed to test for the stability in ranking of provinces when the energy poverty threshold of the TPR was varied from 7 to 13 percent, and the energy poverty cutoff k of the MEPI was changed from 0.2 to 0.4. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient was determined for each pair of ranking of provinces to establish the strength of correlation. Based on the TPR measure, results show that 21 and 13 percent of South African households lived in energy poverty in 2008 and 2014-2015, respectively. The MEPI measure indicates that 37 and 19 percent of the households lived in energy poverty in 2008 and 2014- 2015, respectively. Limpopo province had the highest rates of energy poverty in 2014-2015 with values of 25 percent (using TPR) and 52 percent (using MEPI). This study also found that by 2014-2015, only 23 percent (using the TPR) and 46 percent (using the MEPI) of energy poor households lived below the food poverty line of R430. Further, this study found that household energy poverty has reduced in rural areas and by 2014-2015, only 18 percent (using TPR) and 49 percent (using MEPI) of households located in rural areas lived in energy poverty. The lowest observed value of the Spearman rank correlation coefficient was 0.90. It is concluded that the overall household energy poverty has reduced in South Africa between 2008 and 2014-2015. The TPR gives lower estimates of energy poverty than the corresponding values obtained from the MEPI measure. There is negligible effect of varying the threshold values (within the studied range) of the TPR and k.
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    Investigating the current and future role of paraffin in South Africa
    (Energy Research Centre, University of Cape Town., 2013) Tait, Louise; Merven, Bruno; Senatla, Mamahloko
    This research investigates what the future of paraffin could and should be in South Africa, in particular whether this could be envisioned as transforming paraffin into a safe fuel for households. Alternatively, might South Africa look to assist households with a transition towards other modern fuels.
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    Making communities count: Maximising local benefit potential in South Africa's Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RE IPPPP)
    (International Institute for Environment and Development, 2013) Tait, Louise; Wlokas, Holle Linnea; Garside, Ben
    In South Africa, independent producers of renewable energy are invited to bid to take part in a large-scale, innovative, government-led scheme which aims to not only increase the share of renewable energy in the national grid, but also to benefit impoverished communities. The Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (RE IPPPP) requires independent power producers to contribute to various economic development criteria, including in the communities where their projects are located. However, the nature of these requirements, and the ‘newness’ of this model – being implemented at scale over a short period of time – has also presented private renewable energy businesses with the significant challenge of engaging with community development processes, an area typically outside their expertise. This report explores the experiences and challenges of the renewable energy sector to date, both in meeting the RE IPPPP requirements, and planning for their longer-term implementation. Find out more about our work on improving people's access to sustainable energy.
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    The potential for local community benefits from wind farms in South Africa
    (2012) Tait, Louise; Prasad, Gisela
    This thesis was motivated by the desire to explore more equitable patterns of development in South Africa and how business could contribute to wider developmental goals. It focused specifically on the emerging wind sector in South Africa, drawing on the concept of community wind farms that have emerged in many other parts of the world such as England, Denmark and Canada.
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    Why South Africa's energy-poverty policy ignores female well-being : a case of non-decision-making?
    (2016) Fuma, Ayanda; Rennkamp, Britta; Tait, Louise
    In South African urban-informal contexts characterized by high levels of unemployment, women still have a close relation to the household. Females shoulder most of the burden associated with fulfilling domestic energy requirements. Despite this, energy-poverty policies like the Free Basic Alternative Energy Policy of 2007 ignore the specific challenges faced by women such as the financial implications of procuring daily domestic energy. This study adds insight to this issue by adopting two approaches: firstly, this study explores views captured in twenty semi-structured interviews from a sample of 12 females and 8 males living in an informal settlement, located north of Durbanville in the Western Cape Province. This thesis relies on a case study design based on this informal settlement to describe the nuances and gender specific experiences which exist in managing domestic energy. Secondly, an unobtrusive research approach is taken, relying on an analysis of secondary data from online media and academic platforms. The data is analysed using Bachrach and Baratz (1962) guide to uncover power dynamics veiled in the formal processes of energy-poverty policy development in South Africa. This thesis asks how energy-poverty policy can contribute to addressing the so-called gender-energy-poverty nexus, recognising that social constructs of gender and policy formulation processes may be under-pinned by dynamics of non-decision-making. The main findings of the study show that attributes of non-decision-making which feature in both the formal and informal power dynamics perpetuate female hardships in energy management. Social norms (informal power dynamics) influence the division of household labour including domestic energy management, which renders energy a major pre-occupation for women particularly. Furthermore, not recognizing informality in energy-poverty policy (formal power dynamics) negatively impacts women's well-being as women are dissatisfied with poor performing cooking and lighting fuels which negatively impacts young children's health, including inadequate options for food storage due to limited appliance use in the un-electrified informal settlement. Recommendations for the Free Basic Alternative Energy Policy to address energy-poverty in a gender-sensitive way may help to alleviate the negative impacts of securing daily energy on female informal settlement dwellers.