South Africa’s renewables sector hopes intensive lobbying can persuade its government to avoid another self-inflicted policy wound, just when it seemed the country’s clean-energy ambitions were back on track.

The South African wind and solar industries fear a three-year renewables procurement gap proposed in a draft version of the government’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) could seriously undermine supply chains already rattled by a policy-related market lockdown that was only lifted earlier this year.