As the most versatile of the fossil fuels, gas lends itself to a range of decentralized applications, including devices called fuel cells, which use hydrogen and oxygen to create electricity through an electrochemical process.

In addition, natural gas as the most flexible and sustainable fuel source is also the best back up for unpredictable supply patterns of renewable supply energy sources, such as wind and solar and it thus is the cornerstone of sustainable energy. In the long run, natural gas is likely to become a “bridge” to non-polluting hydrogen fuels and renewable energ.

In addition, the great flexibility of gas enables to use it for both baseload and peak electricity power station and also allows the establishment of small scale, non coastal based power stations. In many countries, including in Israel, coal is the mainstay fuel and whenever coal is cheaper it is dispatched for base load operation before gas fired units. Coal is thus used as base load operation because it has lower variable operating costs than alternative fuels. Capital costs considerations dominate the choice of power plants at peak load operation because it is used for only a short time. In Israel, peak load operation natural gas fired power plants have displaced liquid fuels.
Gas fired power plants have a capital cost advantage over coal fired power plants and are cheaper than liquid fuels. Natural gas is a reliable, environmentally friendly and cost-effective fuel. It has significant advantages over coal (a low quality fuel) and is often a particularly attractive option because of its relatively low capital construction cost; its lower operating and maintenance costs – it costs more to run a coal plant because it is a more complex technology requiring more employees, more costly equipment to maintain and purchase of more commodities such as limestone to remove sulphur dioxide; its shorter construction lead times (which is important in countries where there is an expected deficit in generation capacity); its relatively high fuel conversion efficiency; its lower environmental impact; its higher flexibility of operation; the fact that smaller plants can be constructed, even plants dedicated in the back yard of industrial consumers; natural gas plants can be established in-land and not solely on the restricted coastal plains where coal stations must be constructed (need coal jetty)