    Abstract—Domestic energy supply to rural area is a task facing many governments. In efforts to meet this target, electricity generating companies have tried to exploit available resources of energy, including the combustion of fossil fuels even though they have been recognized to cause environmental problems such as climate change and acid rain. Moreover, these resources occur in limited quantities and therefore pose energy insecurity. It is believed that the addition of renewable energy (RE) resources in the general energy mix can assist in mitigating climate change and in augmenting energy security. This paper investigates the possible renewable energy that can be exploited in hybrid gas turbines (GTs) in South Africa (SA). In this study, data was collected through a desktop approach. It is found that there is potential for use of biodiesel, biogas, and concentrated solar power in GTs. Results also show that about 2.00 x10 6 MWh, 12.09 x10 6 MWh and 105.0 x10 6 MWh of electricity can be annually generated from biodiesel, biogas and concentrating solar collectors respectively through the gas turbine technology in SA. It is concluded that there is great potential for exploiting solar and biogas resources to drive gas turbine power plants in the country. Index Terms—Distributed energy, Electricity generation, Gas turbines, Hybridization, Renewable energy 1 INTRODUCTION Combustion of fossil fuels for heat and power production has been associated with environmental degradation, such as the emission of greenhouse gas (GHG) and the formation of acid rain. Apparently, the energy sector is a major contributor to the GHG emission in South Africa (SA). It has been shown that if the economy of SA grows without constraint in the near future, the country’s GHG emission will escalate [1]. In addition to environmental concerns, there is gradual depletion of the conventional energy resources (such as coal, oil and gas) which is leading to energy insecurity. One of the possible solutions in this regard is the exploitation of renewable energy (RE) resources in power plants, including gas turbines. The gas turbine technology (GTT) has experienced tremendous transformation since the world’s first industrial gas turbine was built in 1939 [2]. It has evolved from the directly-fired coal combustion system                                                             1 Data was converted to SI units by authors. This work was supported in part by the Department of Science & Technology (Grant DST/CON 0078/2014) and the National Research Foundation. E. C. Okoroigwe, Energy Research Centre, University of Cape Town Rondebosch 7701South Africa (e-mail: Edmund.okoroigwe@uct.ac.za). A. Madhlopa , Energy Research Centre, University of Cape Town Rondebosch 7701South Africa (e-mail: amos.madhlopa@uct.ac.za). characterized by low efficiency and heavy carbon emission to a more sophisticated, efficient, combined system with less emissions than the former. This latter version is an integrated system based on RE) resources (such as biomass, solar radiation and hydro power) which are proven to contain the menace of pollutant emissions. Biomass based renewable energy resources in SA include canola, sunflower, soybean for biodiesel, sugarcane and sugar beet for ethanol production [3, 4]. The government’s policy of blending 2% of biofuel with the liquid conventional fuels [4] can promote the development of the biofuel market in the country. In addition, the strategy to develop the biofuel industry through the previously disadvantaged homelands areas [5- 7] is commendable. However, this can be jeopardized if the host communities, where such biofuel projects would be located, do not adequately participate in the decision making process [3]. Other RE resources available are: solar radiation, biogas, hydro (water) etc. This paper focuses on the potential of RE resources that can be hybridized to drive gas turbine (GT) power plants in SA. 1.1 Fundamental operation of a gas turbine The basic GT operation is schematically shown in Fig. 1, and thermodynamically presented in Fig. 2. Air enters an axial compressor at point 1, assuming the ISO conditions of 288 K, 101.3 MPa, and 60% relative humidity [8] 1 . The air is then compressed to higher pressure and temperature at the exit of the compressor and enters the combustion chamber at point 2 where fuel is injected and combustion takes place (heat input) at a constant pressure. At point 3, the flue gas enters the turbine at the same pressure but higher temperature. The gas mixture is expanded in the nozzle section [8, 9] releasing its thermal energy with a portion being converted to kinetic energy in the gases to turn the turbine blades. This energy is partly converted to work to drive the compressor shaft while some portion of the remaining is converted to useful work to drive the electric generator. Some of the thermal energy in the gases exit the turbine as exhaust gas at point 4, at a temperature of about 400 – 600 o C [9]. Points 1 – 4, in Fig. 1 constitute a complete thermodynamic cycle (Brayton cycle). Evaluation of the Potential for Hybridization of Gas Turbine Power Plants with Renewable Energy in South Africa Edmund C. Okoroigwe, and Amos Madhlopa