Windscapes and Socio-technical imaginaries of the Tsitsikamma Community Wind Farm, South Africa

• In Event: Extractivism, Conservation, Science and Justice: Workshopping Emerging Approaches in Decolonial Science

Abstract

South Africa, a country highly dependent on coal for its electricity generation and that has significant coal reserves initiated a large-scale renewable energy programme. The Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REI4P) implemented in 2011 assumes that by including some criteria for local economic development and social economic development, enterprise development and local ownership that should be met from contributions from the project’s revenue, local well-being will be improved together with climate mitigation. This study explores the sociotechnical imagination of "community benefit" in the Tsitsikamma Community Wind Farm, considered to a ‘model’ project under REI4P.

Author

• Michelle Pressend, University of Cape Town