The South Africa Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) has elected three new board members – Lena Chirwa, Lance Blaine and Nontokozo Nkozi, who will serve as treasurer – for the 2024 financial year.

Existing board members Titania Zincke, Jose Rodrigues and Niveshen Govender will continue in their respective roles, while Sunette Smith has been appointed chairperson.

She succeeds Dhesen Moodley in this position.

Govender is confident Smith will help the organisation to achieve even greater levels of success and impact in advancing the renewable energy agenda in South Africa.

Among Smith’s key focus areas will be grid capacity, SAWEA states.

Smith is a business development executive at Reatile Group. She also has experience working as commercial and financial director at Murray & Roberts.

The board appointments were announced during the organisation’s annual general meeting on February 20, which also marked the unveiling of SAWEA’s first annual report.

The report highlights that South Africa accounts for 30% of Africa’s 9 GW wind capacity and that wind energy capacity globally has reached 1 TW.

SAWEA foresees that 3 200 MW of wind production will come on line through Bid Window 7 of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme.

Additionally, ongoing negotiations in terms of power purchase agreements suggest the potential for an additional 3 000 MW of wind energy to be produced in coming years.

The report states several notable achievements made by SAWEA in the last year, including results from a Renewable Energy Grid Survey it conducted together with Eskom, which found that of the 64 GW of renewable energy projects that are currently in development in the country, half of them comprise wind energy projects.

Despite the grid capacity and other industrywide challenges, SAWEA says it remains steadfast in its dedication to fostering positive transformation and innovation within the renewable energy landscape.