Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
The great puzzle is why we don’t build closed cycle gas turbine power generators. Yes, the future is sun and wind. But no, we cannot move from coal to sun in one great leap. Our coal stations are nearing the end of their lives far faster than we can build green power.
There are promising gas fields off our west and east coasts. There is also a global market for gas. Liquefied gas is readily transportable by ship. Gas is still by far the largest single source of power in industrialised countries, despite the green rhetoric.
The technology to build gas power is well established. Gas plants are orders of magnitude simpler than coal, and take less than a quarter of the time to build. They are 50% less polluting as they create water vapour with carbon dioxide.
Willem Cronje, Cape Town
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: Gas cannot be ignored
The great puzzle is why we don’t build closed cycle gas turbine power generators. Yes, the future is sun and wind. But no, we cannot move from coal to sun in one great leap. Our coal stations are nearing the end of their lives far faster than we can build green power.
There are promising gas fields off our west and east coasts. There is also a global market for gas. Liquefied gas is readily transportable by ship. Gas is still by far the largest single source of power in industrialised countries, despite the green rhetoric.
The technology to build gas power is well established. Gas plants are orders of magnitude simpler than coal, and take less than a quarter of the time to build. They are 50% less polluting as they create water vapour with carbon dioxide.
Willem Cronje, Cape Town
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Germany signs gas deal with UAE as chancellor visits Gulf
Invictus Energy begins drilling its first of two oil wells in Zimbabwe
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Most Read
Published by Arena Holdings and distributed with the Financial Mail on the last Thursday of every month except December and January.