Coal-fired power generation should continue to be part of South Africa’s energy mix, its Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe said on Tuesday, noting that he would go to court if necessary to keep a plan for new coal power plants alive. “I know that we’re going to end up in court for it,” Mantashe said at the Africa Energy Week conference in Cape Town on Tuesday, as carried by Bloomberg. Mantashe, a former coal unionist, says that South Africa’s Integrated Resources Plan includes plans for the construction of 1.5 gigawatts (GW) of new coal-fired power capacity and should be kept. Currently, coal is by far the major energy source for South Africa, comprising around 80 percent of the country’s energy mix. South Africa, however, did not sign the COP26 coal pledge of 40 countries to phase out coal, South African Environment Minister Barbara Creecy told Daily Maverick this week.

Source: The North Africa Journal November 09, 2021 20:30 UTC