While coal continues to play an important role in Southern Africa’s energy mix, the biggest opportunity for energy generation over the next two decades would be in the gas sector, Thomas Garner, the CEO of Exxaro and Tata Power’s clean energy company Cennergi, said on Tuesday.

“With Mozambique and Botswana’s gas fields being currently developed, we are going to see big deals coming into play,” he said at a Geological Society of South Africa conference, in Johannesburg.

Garner also said renewable-energy sources would grow in importance, especially in South Africa, where there is a 5 000 MW power deficit.

He pointed out that the biggest challenge with developing a renewable-energy sector was that there were no balance sheets behind these projects.

“To liberate the African market, it would be good to get a balance sheet behind the Southern African Power Pool that would open a lot of opportunities for investment to the north of South Africa. The question is where do you put money into generation, where into transmission and where in distribution?

“There are massive amounts of funding that need to go into these projects. The governments cannot carry these costs on their own, and private funding would also be needed,” Garner said.

Meanwhile, Envaluation independent consultant Julie Stacey stated that there would be further continued drivers for the use of coal, reiterating the link between energy and development.

“It is reliable, a developing nation priority and relatively affordable. But a lot of people see that it is a poor nation’s problem and is quite difficult to mine. We need to stop being defensive about coal and look at it as a transition commodity in the energy sector,” she noted.