The future of wind energy in Africa looks bright, provided it has an enabling regulatory and policy landscape and market conditions in which it can flourish, the 15th annual Windaba Exhibition and Conference heard this week.

During the two-day event on 6 and 7 October 2026, hosted at the CTICC by the South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA), Juliana Kainga, Director of Africa WindPower at the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), launched the council’s biannual Status of Wind in Africa report. 

She said that despite Africa possessing about 58 000 GW of onshore wind energy potential, less than 0.02% of that capacity has been installed to date. Turning this potential pipeline into operational assets hinges on scaling corporate power purchase agreements, expanding grid infrastructure, leveraging local capital alongside development financing, and aligning public policy with industrial demand, she noted.

On the plus side, Ms Kainga added, the continent has reached 11.1 GW in cumulative installed wind capacity, with a record 1.53 GW installed in 2025 alone, despite transmission capacity being a limiting factor. 

“South Africa is a clear example, particularly in the Cape provinces where some of the best wind resources are located. A project can obviously have a buyer and financing in place, but be unable to proceed at the required pace if the grid is not able to be accommodated.”

The GWEC projects that installed wind capacity in Africa will reach 30GW to 50GW by 2035, with South Africa expected to exceed 15 GW. “The measure of success will be what Africa builds with the electricity once these projects are actually built out. We’ll see a lot more investment, a lot more industrial growth, exports, jobs and more reliable power,” Ms Kainga said.

During his address on the first day of the conference, Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa outlined the South African government’s intention to procure additional battery storage systems to store excess electricity generated, including from wind power projects, and to sell surplus power to regional neighbours. He further committed to expanding transmission infrastructure to accommodate new generation capacity.

Sessions during the two-day conference focused on unpacking the three pillars of this year’s Windaba theme, “Implementing Watt Matters: Policy. Power. People.” 

Policy: import tariffs, localisation, SAREM and SAWEM

A panel explored the delicate balance between using import tariffs to incentivise local industrialisation versus the financial risks that trade barriers impose on renewable energy project developers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the wind sector.

The Industrial Development Corporation’s Ian Davis noted, “Localisation is always going to cost a little bit to set up at first, but that cost is insignificant compared to the long-term economic benefits of local labour, factories and industrial capacity.”

Still on the subject of localisation, the South African Renewable Energy Masterplan’s (SAREM) alignment with national generation planning under Integrate Resource Plan 2025 came under scrutiny, including the practical challenges of implementing SAREM’s ambitious industrialisation targets.

"SAREM is our blueprint for industrialisation in the country, where we seek to grow renewable energy and energy storage value chains ... by building local manufacturing capacity, creating sustainable jobs and enabling inclusive economic development so that no one is left behind,” explained Noma Qase from the Department of Electricity and Energy.

Mtha Moses of the Localisation Support Fund said that local manufacturers face challenges competing with lower-cost international imports, particularly due to higher input costs and lack of scale. However, Jack Redmore of GreenCape stressed that “South Africa doesn’t have to manufacture every single component across the solar PV, wind and battery value chains” but should rather focus on components where it has a competitive edge.

Speakers also explored how the South African Wholesale Electricity Market (SAWEM) aims to transform electricity trading across sub-Saharan Africa through spot-market price signals, bilateral contracting and day-ahead dispatch. It is anticipated that under SAWEM, high penetrations of zero- to marginal-cost wind and solar power will drive spot prices down during peak generation hours, similar to wholesale markets in Europe.

Power: achieving transmission and distribution cohesion

Speakers noted that a critical challenge facing South Africa is building, managing and modernising the transmission and distribution networks needed to carry power. Here, the National Transmission Company South Africa’s (NTCSA) General Manager for Energy Market Services, Andrew Etzinger, emphasised that the private and public sectors should work together to fund and deliver grid infrastructure expansion.

The South African National Energy Development Institute’s Prof. Prathaban Moodley said it is vital to support and capacitate municipalities. For example, the National Treasury is sponsoring 

projects in 17 priority municipalities focused on smart metering, loss reduction and asset health monitoring to prevent local grid collapse.

Another panel brought together representatives from Eskom, the NTCSA and the National Energy Regulator of South Africa to focus on the operational transition to the Grid Capacity Allocation Rules. These rules replace the “first-come, first-served” framework with a “first-ready, first-served” principle, prioritising shovel-ready projects over speculative projects to ensure greater transparency and fair access to the grid.

Furthermore, the NTCSA is due to formally launch the Grid Access Unit later this month as a strategic enabler for industry, including a portal that provides developers with real-time visibility of queue positions, available substation capacity and the status of their applications.

People: building skills and empowering communities

This year’s Windaba saw the introduction of the People Pavilion, celebrating SMMEs, community trusts and local initiatives from the communities where independent power producers operate. 

There was a strong focus on gender diversity and youth upskilling, spotlighting several promising young professionals in the sector. Among them was Thando Gqoli, a commercial and legal graduate from Globeleq. “I am a Covid matric baby, so there was a lot of load-shedding at the time, and studying with candles was my first introduction to renewable energy! So being part of an industry that could eventually change that – especially with Eskom moving away from coal – is really important to me,” he said.

Cosatu Western Cape Provincial Secretary Tony Ehrenreich advocated for innovative ownership structures – such as worker shareholding in renewable generation facilities – to give employees a direct financial stake in the clean energy transition.

Energy and Water Sector Education and Training Authority (EWSETA) CEO Kedibone Moroane-Nkhobo emphasised the importance of forging partnerships to advance skills development in the renewable energy sector. For example, EWSETA has collaborated with SAWEA to support more than 330 beneficiaries across the wind value chain, placing interns at more than 50 independent power producer (IPP) companies and funding work-integrated learning opportunities for engineering graduates.

The Presidential Climate Commission’s Blessing Manale summed up the importance of prioritising communities: “It cannot be policy first. It's got to be people, power and policy. It's got to be people first. Otherwise, we’ll end up in a situation where, while there’s the right energy policy, people are left behind.”