PROTEA is a three-year research collaboration project between South African and Norwegian partners that will help plan solar energy in ways that are beneficial for the climate, nature, and local communities. The project focuses on South Africa, where there is great potential for solar power, but also high biodiversity and significant social inequalities. The energy system is still dominated by coal and affected by frequent power shortages.
The main aim of PROTEA is to develop new knowledge, data collection methods, and open digital toolkits. The toolkits will show where and how different types of solar power and solar heating can be built with the least possible impact on ecosystems and land use, while improving access to affordable, clean energy. By combining technical, economic, environmental, and social information in one integrated framework, the project will provide guidance on the trade-offs between clean energy provision, land use, biodiversity impact, and social equity visible and easier to understand for authorities, companies, and communities.
The project will study both large, utility-scale solar plants and smaller, community-based systems that can supply electricity and heat to households and local businesses. PROTEA will map how solar developments affect biodiversity, ecosystem services – such as water, soil, and pollination – and key social aspects, including energy access, health and livelihoods in rural and vulnerable areas. Local and Indigenous knowledge, stakeholder workshops, and field data will be combined with public databases and satellite-based information to give a richer picture of risks and opportunities.
A central innovation goal in PROTEA is an integrated, open-source planning toolkit that extends SINTEF’s EnergyModelsX so that it can consider techno-economic performance, ecological impacts, and social equity metrics simultaneously. This will allow users to explore different scenarios for location, technology choice, size, storage, and grid needs, and see how each option affects emissions, nature, and distribution of benefits and burdens. The methods will be designed so they can later be applied in other African regions, as well as Norway, supporting broader nature-aware energy planning.
The project will also strengthen research capacity, particularly at historically disadvantaged institutions in South Africa, through new postdoctoral positions and close collaboration with Stellenbosch University, the University of Limpopo, and SINTEF. Together with industry and civil society partners, PROTEA aims to shorten the path from research results to real-world projects and to contribute to a more just and environmentally responsible energy transition.