A new National Business Initiative (NBI) study offers support for gas as a transition fuel in South Africa’s shift from coal in the production of electricity and synthetic fuels (synfuels). The study stresses, however, that this role should be confined in the electricity sector to the provision of flexible balancing capacity for the country’s growing fleet of variable renewable-energy generators rather than to offer so-called baseload. In the manufacture of synfuels, meanwhile, it is regarded as a lower-carbon replacement for coal, until cleaner solutions, such as green hydrogen, are fully commercialised.
