Generating economic development from renewable energy: a city-level comparison of China and South Africa

South Africa's Renewable Energy (RE) Rollout at the National and Local level has been slow and contentious. The South African policy framework has sometimes been called intermittent, uncoordinated, and lacking coherence. This has led to much market uncertainties in the past causing businesses to suffer. Municipalities should have the power to generate new energy or procure energy, but the complexities related to licensing have often led municipalities to abandon RE generation or procurement entirely, leaving it for the national government. However, there have been 2 critical recent changes.