Development of renewables in the heat supply sector raises different issues. Today, renewables provide 33% of South Africa’s primary energy demand for heat supply, the main contribution coming from theuse of biomass. The lack of district heating networks is a severe structural barrier to the large scale utilisation of geothermal and solarthermal energy. Past experience shows that it is easier to implement effective support instruments in the grid connected electricity sector than in the heat market, with its multitude of different actors. Dedicated support instruments are required to ensure a dynamic development. In the Energy [R]evolution scenario, renewables provide71.2% of South Africa’s total heating and cooling demand in 2050.

• Energy efficiency measures can slow down the current increase of heat supply demand, saving 95 PJ/a compared to the reference scenario, in spite of improving living standards.
• For direct heating, solar collectors, biomass/biogas as well asgeothermal energy are increasingly substituting for fossil fuelfired systems.
• A shift from coal and oil to natural gas in the remaining conventionalapplications will lead to a further reduction of CO2 emissions.