2025: A year of momentum in South Africa’s energy transition

As 2025 draws to a close, it feels like the end of a rewarding but demanding year for South Africa’s clean energy sector. There were challenges, but also solid progress and a clearer sense of direction than we’ve had for some time. Much of the groundwork for a more open electricity market began to take shape, and private renewable development continued to gain scale.

Earlier this year we announced that JUWI has 340 MW under construction, a build programme that will add roughly 5% to SA’s total installed solar capacity once complete. A key milestone within this was our module supply agreement with JA Solar, securing around 420 000 panels for the Sonvanger and Paarde Valley 2 projects. Alongside our work for Teraco datacentres and the GCO hybrid project in Senegal, these efforts kept our teams moving through a demanding year and reflected the pace at which private renewable development is maturing.

Against this backdrop, the sector more widely changed in important ways. Policy and regulatory changes strengthened the foundations of our electricity system, and there is growing confidence that we are moving towards a more open market, faster project rollout and the gradual easing of long-standing barriers. The developments below shaped 2025 and will influence how projects move forward in 2026.

One of the most significant legislative changes this year stems from the Electricity Regulation Amendment (ERA) Act, which came into effect on 1 January 2025. This law amends the Electricity Regulation Act of 2006 and provides a stronger legal basis for a competitive electricity market and clearer governance of grid and trading functions. It also sets timelines for the establishment of a Transmission System Operator (TSO) and paves the way for more open, market-based participation across generation, transmission and trading.

The Act underpins much of the reform we saw during the year. It makes explicit room for competitive market structures, clarifies roles for licensing and market functions, and creates a framework in which new institutions can be formed and licensed. In November, this was followed by Eskom’s approval of the Market Operator licence for the National Transmission Company South Africa (NTCSA), along with the establishment of the Electricity Market Advisory Forum. Together, these steps form part of the groundwork for the South African Wholesale Electricity Market (SAWEM), planned for introduction in 2026.

The increase in trading licence applications this year was another sign of the market’s readiness. Many businesses are already planning for a future in which electricity can be bought and sold more freely, with greater choice of suppliers and pricing options.

Alongside this, work continued on curtailment frameworks and the development of future market rules, both of which will be essential as renewable penetration grows and the electricity market becomes more flexible.

Transmission planning also advanced during 2025. Early in the year, the government completed a market-sounding exercise for Independent Transmission Projects, which tested private-sector appetite for building and financing new lines under the Transmission Development Plan. This fed into the draft Electricity Transmission Infrastructure Regulations released for comment in the first half of the year.

These steps, together with the establishment of the Independent Transmission Project Office, created a clearer framework for private participation in grid expansion. The Transmission Development Plan set out the scale of what is needed, and work began on the first phase of privately co-funded lines. This initial round, covering just over 1 100 km, is expected to release around 3.2 GW of capacity in the Northern Cape and Western Cape.

The benefits will take time to show, but the direction is encouraging.

For a while SA’s main constraint to a successful energy transition has not been viable projects or demand for renewables, but the ability to connect new capacity to a very constrained grid. This is why Nersa’s publication of the Grid Capacity Allocation Rules (GCAR) in November was such an important development.

For many years, grid access followed a first-come approach that allowed projects with limited progress to hold scarce capacity for long periods. The new readiness-based system replaces this with a more structured and transparent process that asks for clear evidence of development progress before capacity is reserved. The aim is to prioritise projects that can realistically reach construction, reduce speculation and give developers and investors a clearer sense of the road ahead.

The rules will not resolve the physical grid shortage, but GCAR is a meaningful improvement in how access to the network is governed.

A notable milestone in 2025 was the financial close of the first wave of large projects designed to wheel power from a single plant to multiple commercial customers. This model has been discussed for years, but it only began to take shape in practice this year.

It was supported by steady progress elsewhere. Eskom expanded its virtual wheeling framework, several municipalities refined their pooled wheeling structures, and traders and developers started signing early agreements with groups of buyers for portfolio supply. These steps gave the market its first practical examples of multi-offtaker wheeling at scale.

For corporate users, these arrangements offer access to cleaner power without underwriting an entire plant. For developers and traders, they provide a way to aggregate demand across several businesses. Together with the ERA Act and broader market reforms, they point towards the multi-buyer, multi-seller environment that a more liberalised electricity market will rely on.

A major development this year was the release of the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) 2025, which provides an updated energy roadmap we’ve been waiting for. The IRP sets the targets for South Africa’s future energy mix and the scale of new capacity we need over the medium to long term.

The IRP allocates substantial volumes of solar PV and wind generation targets, increasing total installed renewable energy generation from about 12 GW today to around 50 GW by 2035. Annual build limits for solar and wind are higher and more consistent than in earlier drafts, which signals a stronger commitment to utility-scale renewables, embedded generation and storage. The plan also maintains a diversified mix that includes gas-to-power, nuclear and battery storage, with coal declining over time.

From JUWI’s perspective, this planning clarity matters. Our development and delivery teams highlight that a clearer long-term view makes it easier to align pipelines, structure projects and plan around future grid needs. It also gives investors more certainty on the scale and sequencing of renewable builds expected in the coming years.

Execution remains the challenge, but the IRP 2025 provides a firmer reference point and supports more confident decision-making across the sector.

2025 was defined by steady, meaningful progress both internally and nationally. Much of the work that took place nationally this year strengthened the foundations of a more stable and predictable electricity system. There is still a considerable distance to go, but the direction is clearer and the momentum is encouraging.

If this progress continues in 2026, SA will be better placed to bring new clean energy online at the pace we need to achieve our IRP ambitions. For JUWI, our focus remains on delivering the projects underway and supporting a sector that is increasingly on firmer ground.