(task) Finally, Germany Makes Progress on Coal

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nuclear, Arctic, innovation

Navigant Research
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Medidata​Voice: J&J Is On The Hunt For Chinese Innovation
Medidata Contributor
Medidata

ENERGY 4/26/2013 @ 4:28PM 3,645 views
Thinking Small, Nuclear Power Enters Distributed Era
Richard Martin , Contributor
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The nuclear power industry’s drive to deploy small, modular reactors (SMRs) took a significant step forward this month. Nuclear technology vendor Babcock & Wilcox formalized its funding agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for the mPower reactor project. With $79 million of federal funds for this year (and a total of $150 million over the five-year program), B&W plans to build a prototype SMR at the Clinch River site in Tennessee, owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority.
SMRs have gleamed in the eyes of nuclear power providers for a decade now, as the industry seeks a new model for economical, carbon-free power generation for the 21st century. The Fukushima nuclear accident, in March 2011, seemed to squelch the so-called “nuclear renaissance,” but many countries – including the U.S., South Korea, Russia, China, and even Japan – are moving ahead with plans for small reactors that can be factory-crafted (thus “modular”) and assembled on-site. Economies of scale have dominated the nuclear power industry for most of its life, with a reactors expanding to 1000 megawatts (MW) or even 1,500 MW.

Now, many believe that the future of nuclear lies in SMRs, of under 300 MW, that can be arrayed in multiple configurations, giving power generators more flexibility and, in theory, lower capital costs.

There are more than a dozen designs currently under development for SMRs. Most of them are simply miniaturized versions of existing, light-water reactors; the mPower is a 180-MW “advanced integral pressurized water reactor” that could be deployed not only for supplying power to the grid but in more specialized applications, such as powering remote oilfield operations or desalinating water.

Arctic Nukes

“SMRs offer TVA an important new option for achieving clean, base-load electricity generation and we are ready to begin the work to understand the value of that option,” said TVA senior vice president of policy and oversight, Joe Hoagland, in a statement.

Increased safety is also a feature of SMRs, at least potentially; NuScale Power, a startup principally backed by Fluor FLR -4.01% Corporation, said at an SMR conference earlier this month that it has developed an inherently safe system that, in case of a full power shutdown such as happened after the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, will self-cool the reactor without the need for external power or water. Essentially, the NuScale design uses a simplified set of water valves that flip open automatically in case of a power disruption.

“Because of the simplicity of the NuScale design, only a handful of safety valves need to be opened in the event of an accident to ensure actuation of the [emergency cooling system],” said Jose Reyes, the co-founder and CTO of NuScale, speaking at the Nuclear Energy Insider SMR Conference in Columbia, S.C. “These safety valves have been mechanically pre-set to align to their safe condition without the use of batteries following a loss of all station power.”

The earliest applications for SMRs are likely to be distributed generation in remote places, including military forward operating bases. A Russian consortium is constructing a barge-mounted SMR, based on the nuclear engines that power icebreaker ships, that can be deployed in some of the least hospitable places on Earth. The idea of nuclear reactors powering oil and gas production in the Arctic is hardly a reassuring thought for environmentalists and diplomats. But it’s likely to become a reality in less than a decade.

The mPower prototype is scheduled to be up and running by 2022.

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Northwestern Mutual​Voice: Gift Ideas For The Techie On Your List
Karl G. Gouverneur
Northwestern Mutual

ENERGY 11/03/2014 @ 6:12PM 1,894 views
Finally, Germany Makes Progress on Coal
Richard Martin , Contributor
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For critics who scoff that Europe’s carbon emission reduction goals are unachievable, Germany has become Exhibit No. 1. Since Chancellor Angela Merkel decreed in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident that Germany would phase out its nuclear power industry, coal use in Germany has been on the rise, and the country’s carbon emissions have remained stubbornly high.

Now it appears that tide may be turning. According to AG Energiebilanzen (“Working Group on Energy Balances”), an energy research firm, total energy consumption in Germany is projected to fall by 5% in 2014, compared to 2013, to the lowest level since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Coal consumption for the year is expected to be down more than 9%.

Those declines are due mostly to the mild winter in 2013-2014, but clean energy is expanding as well: Renewable energy use grew by 1.6% over the first 9 months of 2014, compared to the previous year.

The Brown Stuff
Germany’s coal use carries particular importance not only because it is Europe’s biggest economy, but also because Germany burns mostly lignite or “brown coal,” the dirtiest form of coal, and because Germany’s green energy program, known as the Energiewende, is among the most ambitious in the world. While renewable energy production has expanded rapidly in Germany – accounting, at times, for 100% of the country’s power demand and forcing utilities to pay customers to consume electricity from conventional power plants – the nuclear phase-out has led to a rise in the burning of coal for baseload power supply.

Now, the government is at least considering shutting down coal plants. German minister Rainer Baake of the Green Party told reporters in late October that the government could come up with a plan as early as December to eliminate coal-fired capacity and boost energy efficiency programs. Earlier Der Spiegel reported that the government wants to eliminate as much as 10 GW of coal capacity. A decision will likely not come until next year.

Please Exit

Getting rid of coal is critical if Germany is to reach its target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions 40% compared to 1990 levels by 2020. The environment ministry has said that if current trends continue, the country will fall short of that goal by 5 to 8 percentage points.

Meanwhile Swedish energy giant Vattenfall, one of Europe’s largest operators of power plants, said it will seek to sell off its coal-fired plants in Germany. Vattenfall’s coal operations in Germany produce some 60 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) a year – more than Sweden’s total CO2 emissions.

Like a drunk uncle at a wedding, Germany’s coal industry is an embarrassing and unwelcome guest that everyone would like to usher to the exit. Getting it out the door, though, remains a tough task.

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