Walwyn, David R. | South Africa

David Walwyn is Professor Emeritus in the Graduate School of Technology Management at the University of Pretoria. His research interests cover sustainability transitions, with a specific focus on the transformation of socio-technical systems of energy and mobility. His theoretical approach combines the three areas of techno-economics, social construction of technology and political economy to understand the critical junctures for transitions. He has active projects in renewable hydrogen and vehicle-to-grid technologies. He also consults to the many organisations on feasibility studies, the design of science and innovation policy interventions, issues in research management and strategies for industry localisation.  He supervises several Masters and PhD students on the Management of Technology and Innovation programme.  He has published widely in several areas (full details are available at Google Scholar and ResearchGate).  Dr Walwyn has a B.Sc. Chemical Engineering from the University of Cape Town and a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Cambridge.

Project at IAS-STS: The optimal integration of small scale embedded generation and national energy systems

Small-scale embedded solar (SSES), also known as behind-the-meter or rooftop solar, is now widespread in South Africa.  By the end of 2024, about 5GWp of solar panels, representing 3% of the country’s total electricity needs, had already been installed.  It is estimated that more than 50% of SSES is not registered with either National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) or Eskom, which is a legal requirement under Schedule 2 of the Electricity Regulation Act (No 4 of 2006), and these systems are therefore illegally connected to the national grid, presenting a number of technical and safety risks.  Our work has shown that typically SSES systems are designed for winter conditions and have significant excess power in summer, which could be absorbed by the grid and further relieve peak energy demand.  However, the costs of interconnection with bidirectional metering are unaffordable for the average homeowner.  In this research, we argue that, given the major benefit to Eskom and municipalities of cheap power, it is economically justifiable for these costs to be directly subsidised by the electricity distributors, bringing in much needed revenue to their entities.

Selected Publications:

Walwyn, D. 2024. Moving Beyond National Systems of Innovation: Insights from Antiretroviral Localisation. In: Why Innovations Live or Die: South Africa’s Innovation System, Ed. Zamanzima Mazibuko-Makena and Thomas Pogue.

Walwyn, D. 2023. Balancing Renewable Energy Capacity, Time of Use Tariffs and Energy Storage in Energy Systems. In: Energy Storage Applications in Power Systems, Ed. Wang and Younesi. https://www.intechopen.com/online-first/86850.

Walwyn, D. 2024. Determining the Upper Economic Limit of Wind Fleets. R&D Journal, 40, pp 17–21. doi: 10.69694/2309-8988/2024/v40a3.

Walwyn, D. and Hanlin, R. 2022. Broadening Energy Access for Poor Households in Rural Malawi: How Pico Solar, Mobile Money and Cloud-Based Services are Being Combined to Address Energy Exclusion. Frontiers in Energy Research. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenrg.2022.877307

Walwyn, D. and Kraemer-Mbula, C. 2021. Captives of Capital? Exploring Economic Models as Recursive and Performative Agents. Energy Research and Social Science. 78, pp 102131.