The Fossil Fuel Foundation (FFF) has advocated strongly for coal to be retained as a sustainable part of South Africa’s energy mix for the short to medium term.

“Contrary to the popular belief that ‘coal is dead’, South Africa’s coal resources are abundant and can provide low-emitting, cost-effective, reliable and sustainable power well into the future with the correct technology,” the FFF said during recent public hearings into the draft Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) 2018.

The FFF has called for an intense review of all energy sources, saying the current IRP draft dealt almost solely with solar and wind. The organisation wants government to appoint appropriate experts to undertake studies into all energy sources to ensure the most appropriate energy mix.

The organisation said total coal sales, both local and exported, generated R120-billion in 2017 and coal was the country’s highest foreign exchange earner. It was the largest mining income earner, beating gold, platinum and diamonds. The FFF has argued that the coal industry has 225 000 direct employees in coal mining, power generation, Sasol and the metallurgical industries.

The FFF further advocated for circulating fluidised-bed combustion (CFBC) technology, a clean coal technology with lower emissions, to be implemented. Carbon dioxide emissions are significantly reduced when coal is cofired with biomass, it argued.

“We need to ensure baseload power for the country on a secure and reliable basis, including adding coal-fired CFBC independent power producers and Eskom retrofits.”

A presentation to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Energy by FFF cofounder Dr Rosemary Falcon was supported by Council for Geoscience senior scientist Dr Nandi Malumbazo.

Malumbazo said CFBC was proving to be the boiler technology of choice in many energy- intensive countries, including Spain, India, China and Vietnam.

”CFBC is flexible, tolerant, efficient, water-constrained and can be applied to ensure the optimal use of a range of low-grade materials such as coal.”

The use of clean coal in Kenya’s Amu ‘clean coal’ power station was used as an example of how things could work in South Africa. The FFF has said the power station significantly reduces nitrogen oxide and sulphur oxide emissions.

The FFF said the cost implications of reducing coal needs to be carefully considered, as this would reduce the foreign exchange earned by coal.

“Another item to be carefully considered is the need to cost out the implications of adjusting boilers for flexible ramping.”