ENERGY SECURITY: INVESTIGATING NATURAL GAS FOR ENERGY GENERATION AT AIRPORTS IN SOUTH AFRICA – A TECHNOECONOMIC ASSESSMENT

Reducing carbon-dioxide emissions that come from coal-fired power stations is a major challenge especially for developing countries. Renewable energy has reached and surpassed grid parity in many countries, however, due to the intermittent nature of solar and wind energy which are popular choices of renewable energy, energy storage becomes necessary to serve baseload energy requirements. The need for energy storage increases the cost of adopting renewable energy and in most cases makes the investment unfeasible. Furthermore, the spatial demands of renewable energy make it an unsuitable choice for many sites that have high baseload energy requirements such as airports. Emissions from natural gas-powered stations are half those of coal-fired power stations, therefore it is an attractive alternative in the quest for reducing carbon emissions in developing countries. This paper presents an investigation into natural gas as an energy source for airports in South Africa, providing a technical and financial evaluation (or technoeconomic assessment) of its adoption at airports.