The future of the renewable energy sector is female and Electricity and Energy Deputy Minister, Samantha Graham-Maré, is doubling down to make it happen.
In an exclusive interview with SAnews on the sidelines of the Empowering Women in Energy breakfast, Graham-Maré revealed plans to review the department’s gender strategy to make it better equipped to shatter barriers and catapult women into leadership roles across electricity, renewables and previously uncharted fields like green hydrogen.
The event was held as part of the third G20 Energy Transitions Working Group (ETWG) in the North West.
“[The review is] giving us an opportunity to look at what worked and what didn’t work in the past, and then obviously to formulate a strategy that’s going to focus on the things that we need to do better while bringing women in,” she said on Friday.
Finding parity
The International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that the sector is one of the least gender diverse, with women making up less than 20% of the workforce worldwide, while also earning at least 15% less than their male counterparts.
Meaningfully changing that, according to Graham-Maré, begins with getting young women enthusiastic about science, technology, engineering and mathematics with a view of entering the sector.
“We have got to start instilling some sort of understanding in young girls that this is an opportunity and that they have opportunities in the energy space. There are girls in villages in South Africa that have never heard of nuclear science, that have never heard of renewable energy and that don’t even know jobs like this exist.
“We have to find ways… to reach particularly the rural youth and get that message out to them,” Graham-Maré said.
Bridging the awareness gap
The department will be partnering with organisations to reach those youth and conduct roadshows at universities.
“We’re going to speak to some of the students there because we believe a lot of them are feeling a bit demoralised… They’re not sure that there are going to be jobs for them when they finish studying.
“We’re partnering with a lot of our IPPs [Independent Power Producers], with some of the department members to go out to universities and have those conversations.
“We’re also developing a youth strategy. The focus will be both on women and youth, and making sure that they understand that there is space for them,” she said.
However, Graham-Maré emphasised that for the industry to grow and create new jobs, government must do its part.
“What we have to do is make sure that our IRP [Integrated Resource Plan] gets properly implemented and that we’re creating the pipeline of projects that will create the jobs.
“We also have the South African Renewable Energy Masterplan that we’ve launched, which is focusing on two things: industrialisation… looking at ways we can build manufacturing capability in the country, and we’re looking at how we can build the service industry around the renewable energy sector,” she said.
A “very strong focus” will also be placed on skills development in the sector.
“There are new skills required in the new industries and we need to make sure that people are ready for that.
“The just energy transition is looking at how we transition people from a coal economy… into the renewable sector and the green economy. There’ll be a lot of focus on… reskilling, upskilling, and also new opportunities within the renewable sector that didn’t necessarily exist within the coal economy,” Graham-Maré told SAnews.
Crushing barriers
Reflecting on her own journey over the past year as Deputy Minister in a male dominated sector, Graham-Maré told SAnews that she has been enthralled by the “incredible women” already working in the energy space.
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“We are talking about women engineers. We’re talking about PhDs. The women in the energy space are absolutely mind blowing.
“Another very interesting thing is that green hydrogen is… a sort of new development within the energy space. And because it didn’t exist before, women are not having to elbow their way in… It’s a space that’s opened up completely. Women are owning the green hydrogen space,” she said.
The Deputy Minister acknowledged that there is “always room for improvement”.
“But I can assure you, women are owning this energy space and they’re doing it with class… They are looking fabulous. They are owning the space and we’re looking at ways that we can support them to make sure that they continue,” Graham-Maré concluded.
