‘Repurposing’ coal infrastructure can boost South Africa’s energy transition, International Energy Agency says

South Africa is the most coal-dependent country in the world for its energy needs, and coal is the most harmful fossil fuel in terms of its impact on health, global warming and human-induced climate change. The country, however, also suffers from a toxic mixture of staggering unemployment levels with entire towns and livelihoods tied to the coal value chain, persistent energy insecurity and a power utility that is financially incapable of investing in cleaner forms of power generation.

In the context of this quagmire, a recent report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), Security of Clean Energy Transitions, suggests one pathway to address all of these issues: repurposing coal infrastructure.   

The report’s abstract explains that it “examines the evolving challenges of maintaining energy security in the context of clean energy transitions on the pathway to net zero emissions”. 

The report “highlights key energy security concerns during energy transitions and provides governments, notably within the Group of Twenty (G20), with policy recommendations for maintaining and improving energy security, while accelerating clean energy transitions”.

South Africa is in the top 20 greenhouse gas emitters worldwide and causes more than 1% of all historical greenhouse gas emissions. Rapidly reducing global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is an increasingly urgent and necessary task if humanity is to limit an increase in the average global temperature to below 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. 

The most recent accounting of the science of climate change and global warming – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Working Group I report – estimates the value of global warming to date at 1.1°C.

Beyond 1.5°C is considered “dangerous climate change”.

See South Africa’s greenhouse gas emissions and emissions targets.

The agency’s report says that “repurposing coal infrastructure can accelerate just and secure energy transitions. The most interesting asset in the coal value chain is generally the coal power plant and its associated infrastructure, in particular the connection with the electricity transmission grid. There is currently over 2,000GW of coal power generation capacity that could be converted into low-carbon assets in different ways, providing adequacy, flexibility and stability to the electricity grid.” 

The first option would be to retrofit coal-fired power plants with carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technologies. “Another option is to use low-carbon fuels, such as sustainable biomass, or ammonia produced from renewable hydrogen or fossil fuels in combination with CCUS”.

The government and Sasol are looking into this ammonia, among other hydrogen-related initiatives. 

Read more in Daily Maverick: “The past, present and future of coal-fired power in South Africa”

Our Burning Planet reported in January that Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele described a “groundbreaking venture between the national government, the Northern Cape and Sasol which will bring much-needed economic growth and investment to our shores through the production of green hydrogen”.

“Over the past 12 months, Infrastructure South Africa has been working with the Northern Cape and Gauteng provincial governments to develop catalytic green H2 projects that will underpin provincial green H2 strategies, with the Northern Cape being the production hub and Gauteng being the domestic demand hub.”

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