INSPIRE REIPPPP Booksprint

The REIPPPP Booksprint is a collaborative and creative documentation project that captured a decade of lived and worked experience in implementing social performance in South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP). This initiative sought to be a first-time comprehensive and collaborative effort to distil insights, challenges, and lessons learned by SP practitioners working at the frontlines of the country’s large-scale renewable energy deployment. 

In August 2025, a diverse group of practitioners gathered in Cape Town for a three-day reflective retreat designed to surface and articulate what has been learned about SP in the unique context of a government-driven procurement programme that aims to combine energy security and economic transformation policy objectives. The retreat blended traditional writing with art, journaling, poetry, embodiment, and dialogue, ensuring the final outputs reflected both the technical and emotional dimensions of the work. 

Following the retreat, this body of work was captured and encapsulated into a book.  

Re-wiring Social Performance: Moving from Transactional Compliance to Transformational Impact in the Energy Transition

Fifteen years after the launch of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), a diverse group of practitioners, advisors, developers, community representatives, researchers and social performance professionals came together to ask a simple but profound question:

What have we learned?

This forthcoming book captures the collective reflections of those who have worked at the intersection of renewable energy, community development, transformation and social impact throughout the REIPPPP journey.

While REIPPPP is globally recognised for attracting investment and delivering renewable energy at scale, its ambition extended beyond electricity generation. The programme sought to advance socio-economic development, local participation, transformation and community benefit-sharing as integral components of the energy transition.

This book examines where that ambition succeeded, where it fell short, and what future renewable energy programmes can learn from the experience.

A Collective Act of Learning

The collectively authored record of policy and practice experiences is not a celebration of perfection. It invites the reader into honest and grounded reflections on what works, what does not, and what is required to realise the transformative promise of renewable energy investments.

The contributors offer this book as a conversation starter, a practical guide, and a contribution to the ongoing pursuit of a more just, equitable and inclusive energy future.

Why this book matters

As countries across Africa and the wider Global South accelerate renewable energy deployment, important and hard earned practical and policy lessons from South Africa’s REIPPP programme need to be shared.

Drawing on fifteen years of lived experience, this book offers practical insights for:

• Policymakers designing future procurement programmes
• Renewable energy developers and investors
• Community trusts and development practitioners
• Social performance professionals
• Researchers and advocates working on just transitions
• Governments and institutions across the Global South

The lessons emerging from REIPPPP are increasingly relevant not only for South Africa’s next generation of programmes—including transmission procurement and other infrastructure initiatives—but for any context seeking to balance investment, energy security and equitable development.

The Book

PART I: Setting the Scene

The origins, evolution and developmental intent of REIPPPP, the role of Social Performance, and the realities of working within communities shaped by historical inequality and exclusion.

PART II: Core Pillars of Benefit Delivery

Critical reflections on local content, socio-economic development, enterprise development and community ownership—and how these mechanisms can move beyond compliance toward lasting impact.

PART III: Processes and Practices for Impact

Lessons from implementation, including community engagement, collaboration, monitoring and evaluation, organisational learning and practitioner wellbeing.

PART IV: Social Performance Coming of Age

A roadmap for the future, including a Social Performance Maturity Framework, a Lifecycle Ecosystem Matrix, and recommendations for policy reform and sector-wide transformation.

Join the conversation on how renewable energy can become a more powerful vehicle for social transformation across South Africa, Africa and the Global South – get your copy at WINDABA 2026.