Exploring the Business Opportunities and Challenges in the Renewable Energy Sector of South Africa for UK Investors

Background: South Africa's renewable energy sector represents a strategic market for foreign direct investment, particularly from UK investors. Yet, investor participation remains constrained by regulatory uncertainty, technological dependencies, and uneven stakeholder engagement. This review synthesises empirical evidence through a theoretical framework incorporating Resource Dependency Theory (RDT), Institutional Theory (IT), and Risk Perception Theory (RPT) to elucidate how institutional, technological, and socio-political environments influence foreign investors' strategic decisions in the emerging market. Methods: A systematic review was conducted across five databases for literature published from January 2015 to August 2024, strictly following PRISMA 2020 guidelines. Inclusion criteria targeted renewable energy studies in South Africa focusing on business opportunities, technological innovations, economic impacts, and policy frameworks. Two independent reviewers performed dual-stage screening, data extraction, and quality appraisal using validated Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) and Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Checklists. Narrative synthesis via thematic analysis, guided by RDT, IT, and RPT, identified key themes and their strategic implications. Results ; From 7,779 articles retrieved, six studies met the inclusion criteria. Key investment opportunities identified included biofuel production, waste-to-energy systems, and solar photovoltaic (PV) expansion. For instance, sugarcane waste from 330 smallholder farmers demonstrated a potential of 150,323.3MWh at 50% recovery efficiency, while only 14.3% of 176 businesses were active in solar PV services. Major barriers included policy instability, high dependence on imported technology, fragmented regulatory frameworks, limited innovation capacity, and uneven stakeholder participation. Thematic scores (9/12) highlighted regulatory uncertainty and investment potential as dominant factors, with notable variations observed in stakeholder engagement. Conclusion: This systematic review is the first to analyse South Africa’s renewable energy investment landscape specifically from the perspective of foreign/UK stakeholders. It offers a robust synthesis of systemic risks and strategic opportunities, identifying significant investment potential particularly in bioenergy, solar, and wind sectors. To maximize returns and ensure sustainable market entry, foreign/UK investors should adopt locally adaptive strategies that address regulatory coherence, infrastructure limitations, and community engagement. The proposed conceptual framework and research roadmap provide guidance for future comparative analyses and longitudinal studies on investor behaviour, emphasising the importance of targeted co-innovation partnerships and technology transfer for long-term stakeholder value. Clinical Trial Number: Clinical trial number: not applicable