{"id":612147,"date":"2025-09-29T16:00:40","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T14:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=612147"},"modified":"2025-09-29T16:01:27","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T14:01:27","slug":"south-africas-gas-pipedream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/energy\/612147-south-africas-gas-pipedream.html","title":{"rendered":"South Africa’s gas pipedream"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A prominent energy expert believes that there is little to no room for gas-powered electricity generation in South Africa in the future due to the high cost of importing the resource. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some perceive liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a potential transitional source of electricity generation in South Africa’s move away from coal power to renewable energy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa’s latest integrated resource plan envisions 7,220MW of gas-fired power generation to be part of the energy mix by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This ambition was recently dealt a major blow, with the Supreme Court of Appeal declaring the government’s permit to allow Eskom to build a 3,000MW natural gas plant in Richards Bay null and void.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The court found that there was insufficient public participation in the process and said that Eskom would need to reapply for authorisation after consulting the public. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The order came after environmental groups, including the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance, challenged the government’s permit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While LNG produces much less harmful pollution \u2014 including 32% less carbon emissions \u2014 it primarily consists of methane, which is considered a major contributor to climate change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonetheless, the government and some energy experts believe that LNG could be a valuable source of power in South Africa’s future energy mix. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among them is former Eskom CEO Jacob Maroga, who has expressed firm support for surveying for onshore and offshore gas reserves, including through fracking in the Karoo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

EE Business Intelligence managing director Chris Yelland believes that, at best, natural gas could only be a transitional power source. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For base load and mid-merit power provision, he believes LNG would not be a viable alternative to coal. The main issue is that South Africa has no local LNG extraction or refining capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only gas extraction facility the country once had is the PetroSA’s Mossgas facility off the coast of Mossel Bay. The site has been dormant since 2020 due to gas deposits in the area running out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project was controversial from its early years. In addition to changing the pristine coastline of Mossel Bay, it was established to bypass international sanctions on South Africa during Apartheid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project was troubled further by corruption and gross mismanagement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More recently, a plan to restart the refinery through a deal with a US-sanctioned Russian bank collapsed after substantial backlash, including a legal challenge from a competing bidder for the facility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Importing too costly and risky<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The Richards Bay harbour, where Eskom plans to build a 3,000MW gas power plant. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Yelland explained that the costs associated with importing LNG for use in South African power plants would be too great because of the multiple steps in the supply chain, including: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Extracting the gas<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Piping to the liquefaction plant<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Transport liquefied gas via ship<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Unloading to a liquid storage facility<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Converting liquid back to gas<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Piping, compressing, and pumping gas to a power plant<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    In addition, the price of imported LNG would be volatile and out of South Africa’s control, much like the price of petrol, potentially exposing consumers to substantial electricity tariff hikes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Yelland said that although gas power could have a place as a form of peaking power used only in short bursts or emergencies, it had another rival emerging on this front \u2014 battery power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    He explained that the growing global demand for electric vehicles was pushing down overall lithium-ion battery prices, making them more cost-competitive for use in stationary utility-scale storage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the longer run, potentially 20 or 30 years into the future, Yelland believes that green hydrogen will also have replaced natural gas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    While still expensive to produce and store, Yelland believes that costs in the hydrogen ecosystem and supply chain will come down as the technology matures, just like what has happened with solar PV and batteries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In addition to being a byproduct of renewable energy generation \u2014 which would make it available locally \u2014 green hydrogen emits no hydrocarbons when used for electricity generation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A prominent energy expert believes that there is little to no room for gas-powered electricity generation in South Africa in the future due to the high cost of importing the resource. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":515539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27995],"tags":[10034,86673,61121,99593,57688],"class_list":["post-612147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-chris-yelland","tag-gas-power","tag-jacob-maroga","tag-liquefied-natural-gas-lng","tag-renewables"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612147"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612147"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":612217,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612147\/revisions\/612217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}