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Speaker

Ms Nomawethu Qase (Noma) is a Director responsible for Renewable Energy at the Department of Mineral Resources & Energy (DMRE). Her primary responsibility is to ensure the integration of renewable energy into the mainstream energy supply by planning and co-ordinating strategic interventions. In her role, she has successfully worked in partnership with local and international stakeholders such as the DBSA, UNDP, World Bank, Danish Embassy, Energy and Environment Partnership Programme and GIZ to name a few, to promote renewable energy in South Africa.

Key initiatives that she implemented include:

• the first and second phase of the South African Wind Energy Programme which supported the development of the wind energy sector including the revival of the South African Wind Energy Association;
• the development of the Wind Atlas for South Africa and the South African Wind Energy Awareness Campaign;
• the Renewable Energy Market Transformation Programme which played a pivotal role in supporting some of the Independent Power Producer (IPP) projects that became preferred bidders under the world renowned Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP);
• the promotion of biogas in collaboration with the Southern African Biogas Industry Association (SABIA), DBSA, IDC, GIZ and UNIDO which started off with the hosting of the first national biogas conference in 2013.
• In 2015 she led the publication of the first State of Renewable Energy in South Africa report.

She is also a Board Member of the South African National Energy Development Institute since December 2016.

Noma holds a Master of Philosophy in Energy Studies from the University of Cape Town.

Her passion is to expand access to modern energy services to the South African public, particularly urban and rural communities and to offer consumers sufficient energy choices and information on which to base their daily energy consumption decisions.