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Nuclear Renaissance
Published in William J. Nuttall, Nuclear Renaissance, 2022
Hydrogen has the potential to play a role in very many aspects of the decarbonisation of heat and transport. It could potentially replace natural gas as a pipeline gas for industry and domestic use [69] and it could replace petroleum for vehicle use especially for heavy haulage (trucks and freight trains) and public transport (buses and passenger trains) [70]. As regards trains, the case for hydrogen is best made in those places where the provision of electric power supply infrastructure is not economically feasible. In many areas, hydrogen as a technological option competes with electrification as a low-carbon alternative. Nuclear energy can contribute to both aspects of that competition. Nuclear power can be a major source of reliable baseload low-carbon power for an electrified future. Nuclear power can also be a low-carbon energy source to assist with hydrogen production for use in many sectors. I suggest that some of those sectors (especially those where decarbonisation is required, but will be very difficult) have the potential to be willing to pay relatively high prices (i.e. far higher than has been paid thus far in the decarbonisation of electricity). This willingness to pay for high costs, if it emerges, might be sufficient to incentivise innovations in nuclear engineering—one such idea is discussed in the next section: the commercial use of nuclear process heat.
Sustainable Engineering: Concepts, Principles, and Frameworks
Published in Toolseeram Ramjeawon, Introduction to Sustainability for Engineers, 2020
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) defines green economy (GE) as an economy “that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities.” This definition emphasizes the importance of “getting the economy right” as a precondition for achieving sustainability (UNEP, 2011). A low-carbon economy or decarbonized economy is an economy based on low carbon power sources, which therefore has a minimal output of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions into the biosphere, but specifically refers to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Many countries around the world are designing and implementing low emission development strategies. These strategies seek to achieve social, economic, and environmental development goals while reducing long-term GHG emissions and increasing resilience to climate change impacts. The concepts of green economy and low carbon economy complement the concept of sustainable development by emphasizing the importance of the economy, and especially of innovations, for achieving sustainability (Olsen, 2012).
Applying the model
Published in Gregory F. Nemet, How Solar Energy Became Cheap, 2019
In contrast to the worldwide fleet of nuclear reactors which range in size from 500 to 1500 MW, these new types of reactors aim to provide power at much smaller scales. Small modular reactors (SMRs) have capacities of 50 to 250 MW, about 15% of the size of a full-scale nuclear reactor. Micro-reactors are smaller still, producing 1 to 10 MW of power, about 1% of full-scale size. Moving to such small scales seems counter-intuitive. First, one of the strongest claims from nuclear advocates is that nuclear provides the only large-scale source of low-carbon power, other than hydropower (Bauer et al., 2012; Deutch et al., 2009). SMRs and micro-rectors would appear to be giving up this scale advantage (Cantor and Hewlett, 1988). Second, the history of nuclear power involved a 20-year process, from the late 1950s to the late 1970s, of gradually scaling up plants to the massive sizes that became widespread from the 1980s onwards (Nemet et al., 2018b).
A Preliminary Economic Assessment of Thorium-Based Fuels in a Pressure Tube Heavy Water Reactor
Published in Nuclear Technology, 2018
Alberto D. Mendoza España, Megan Moore, Ashlea V. Colton, Blair P. Bromley
Given worldwide concerns with the environmental consequences from generating electrical energy,23 it would seem prudent to continue considering both the short-term and long-term implementation of thorium-based fuels to complement the use of uranium-based fuels, especially when considering existing uncertainties in cost estimates and taking into account relative costs compared to alternative sources of low-carbon power generation. For example, recent estimates16 suggest that a PT-HWR with either NU or thorium-based fuel would offer significant savings on the abatement costs for the production of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in comparison to both coal-fired and natural gas–fired electrical power generation.
Delivering sustainable water infrastructure to regional NSW communities
Published in Australasian Journal of Water Resources, 2022
Brace H. Boyden, Hendrik Van Rhijn, Barry Sharah
Initial expectations by many were that coal-fired power may have peaked in 2018 as declines in global coal-fired power generation in 2019 and 2020 were registered. However, 2021 saw the electricity demand outpace low-carbon power supplies. This occurred alongside natural gas normalising in some cases at over 50% more expensive (Nat. Gas Price Forecast 2021). Coal infrastructure was there to make up the deficit with its electrical generation increasing by 9% in 2021 to an all-time high of 10,350 terawatt-hours (TWh) (IEA 2021). Coal is the largest source of energy-related CO2 emissions and its use best minimised if the world intends reducing GHG emissions towards net zero.
Will dispatchability be a main driver to the European Union cooperation mechanisms for concentrated solar power?
Published in Energy Sources, Part B: Economics, Planning, and Policy, 2021
Christoph P. Kiefer, Natalia Caldés, Pablo Del Río
In an exporter country with a high penetration of variable RETs (and high shares of PV), such as Spain, CSP (as well as other dispatchable technologies such as biomass, pumping, and hydropower) can provide low-carbon power when the sun starts setting and until the morning of the next day, complementing PV generation. This dispatchable electricity generation could replace at least part of fossil fuel back-up capacity.