The grassy greens and browns of South Africa’s semi-desert Karoo region are fast becoming dotted with flashes of silver and white, as solar and wind farms spring up across the vast, sun-soaked land in Northern Cape province. But nearby communities – where unemployment and drug-use are a persistent problem – say that even as profits trickle into their towns, more can be done to distribute fairly the benefits from the renewable energy they believe belongs to them.
“You can’t have shared growth if you don’t have shared ownership,” said Neville Gabriel, executive chairperson of Sibona Ilanga, the community trust connected to Globeleq, a British renewable energy company with solar farms in De Aar. Community meetings about the clean power projects have grown from about 10 to 100 people, said Gabriel. Yet locals still see themselves as being on the receiving end of charity rather than as IPP shareholders.