South African energy plan expects 59 per cent contribution from coal

• 5 years ago (2019-10-21)
• David Flin

Africa 320 Coal 296

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Gwede Mantashe, South Africa’s Mines and Energy Minister, has announced the country’s plan to boost electricity generation over the next decade, in which coal will continue to play a major role. The plan is for electricity generation until 2030, and comes as Eskom , the state utility, struggles against capacity shortages.

The Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) replaces a previous plan which had not been updated for a decade, and the IRP deals with planned electricity generation and the energy mix. Mantashe said: “The IRP 2019 supports a diversified energy mix. Coal will continue to play a significant role in electricity generation as the country has the resource in abundance. New investments will be directed towards more efficient coal technologies, underground coal gasification, and the development of carbon capture and storage to enable us to continue using coal resources in an environmentally responsible way.”

Mantashe said that the additional capacity for the energy mix until 2030 would include 1500MW from coal, 2500MW from hydro, 6000MW from photovoltaic, 14,400MW from wind, 2088MW from storage, and 3000MW from gas. He said that this will see coal contributing 59 per cent of energy volumes.