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"It could easily supply all the growth in our electricity needs for the foreseeable future.
"It has a maximum potential for job creation way above conventional fuel sources such as fossil fuels and nuclear power."
Taking health into account
Exciting development work was being done on wind turbines in South Africa, and although this was on a small scale, local manufacturing of turbines was "certainly on the cards".
"There's a proposed wind farm in the Western Cape (at Darling) that will go up to 100 megawatts and will supply commercial electricity, regardless of the problems with access to the (national electricity) grid and the lack of equity in the pricing of energy sources.
Lakhani said wind power, if costed correctly, was a cheaper way of generating electricity than coal-burning or nuclear power stations.
"If you figure in just the health costs, between what is impacted on people by, for example, coal-fired power stations, and you take that health cost and apply it to (energy) competitors, you'll find that wind power is actually cheaper for the country than coal-fired power stations.
"The same applies to a far greater extent to nuclear power, given the long life of the radioactive waste."
He said the government should halt its subsidisation of the fossil fuel and nuclear industry, and promote renewable energy sources.
"A mix of renewable energy sources - such as tidal, wave, geothermal, solar, solar-thermal and wind power - would more than happily look after our energy needs for the future.
"We could take the lead internationally - there's no reason we couldn't do that - and in partnership with our African neighbours develop energy for all," he said.
However, many NGOs here in Bali remain sceptical of the WSSD's ability to deliver meaningful action plans to promote sustainability.
"If current language prevails," states one NGO newsletter, "the summit will deliver zero added value to sustainable energy".
Many groups are lobbying for the introduction of worldwide renewable energy targets.
These involve countries committing themselves to generating a percentage of their electricity - typically, between five and 20 percent - from renewables by a certain target date.
"The technology is available and the resources will never run out," says the EWEA, "we now need stronger political signals to deliver."
A partner in the production of the EWEA's report is the environmental group Greenpeace.
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