Repowering Coal

Terra Praxis and design consultants Bryden Wood are utilizing modular and standard design to quickly scale low-carbon energy infrastructure. Not-for-profit Terra Praxis’s REPOWER project seeks to repurpose coal plant sites to clean energy plants, maintaining workforce and energy output. The key to the project’s success is its fast and repeatable design, which Bryden Wood has helped develop. Bryden Wood’s standardized, and prefabricated construction approach reduces the cost and time of construction by 40-80%. Their approach speeds up the licencing process by standardizing each plant. They are also working with US and Canadian regulators to fast-track approval which in notoriously long and arduous in nuclear. In short, the modular design methodology can fast track the construction of the low carbon economy.

Bryden Wood (and Terra Praxis) have announced ambitious plans to repurpose the world’s coal fired power stations to accommodate modular nuclear reactors in a bid to decarbonize the global energy sector. Unveiled at COP26, the plan suggests replacing coal fired boilers at existing power plants with Advanced Heat Sources (Generation IV Advanced Modular Reactors) to deliver a substantial portion of the clean electricity required to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Brydon Wood is an international architecture and engineering firm working with Terra Praxis on this “platform solution” that will make this possible at scale and speed by transforming how projects of this kind are financed, designed, approved and delivered.

Bryden Wood está trabajando con Terra Praxis en estrategias para recargar las centrales eléctricas de carbón existentes con fuentes de calor avanzadas (como pequeños reactores modulares). Esto permitirá que la infraestructura existente continúe suministrando energía confiable, pero sin emisiones, y avance un progreso innovador hacia Net Zero para 2050. El Reino Unido está analizando un ambicioso plan para rediseñar las centrales eléctricas de carbón del mundo para reactores nucleares modulares. La instalación de fuentes de calor avanzadas para reemplazar las calderas de carbón en las plantas de carbón existentes permitirá el uso continuo de la infraestructura existente para producir energía continua libre de emisiones.

Terra Praxis engaged Bryden Wood to work on the ‘Repurposing Coal’ initiative, just launched at COP26. The initiative aims to replace coal-fired boilers at existing power plants with advanced heat sources (generation IV advanced modular reactors) to deliver a substantial portion of the clean electricity required to achieve net zero by 2050. Terra Praxis is working with Bryden Wood, MIT, University at Buffalo, Microsoft, and others to standardize and optimize the following key elements: all processes including procurement, investment and approval; building and engineering systems; design, manufacture, assembly and operation; and interactions between different supply chain organizations to enable greater collaboration.

Terra Praxis hosted this high-level event in parallel with the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26)—Energy Day at Climate Action Solution Centre (CASC): De-Risking the Terawatt Transition. During the full-day event, key stakeholders revealed new near-term climate-scale strategies to compete on price and performance with fossil fuels that will break through the world’s largest and most difficult carbon emissions challenges: coal, and liquid fuels. Customers, investors and political leaders announced strategies to accelerate the affordable repowering of 2TW of coal and delivery of 100 million barrels/day of carbon-neutral liquid fuels. These large-scale solutions will repurpose trillions of dollars of existing infrastructure to continue supplying reliable energy, without emissions, and can advance groundbreaking progress toward Net Zero by 2050. The sessions were videotaped and can be viewed at the link below.

Mohamed Nasheed, a former president of the Maldives who once held an underwater cabinet meeting to highlight the threat to the Indian Ocean nation, said the coal commitments were not nearly enough. "This is a welcome start. But it won’t stop the climate from heating more than 1.5°C and devastating large parts of the world," he said, "G20 countries need to look at decommissioning coal plants at home and repowering their coal fleet infrastructure with clean energy." (Note former Prime Minister Nasheed participated in Terra Praxis' full-day event on De-risking the Terawatt Transition at COP26.)

Mohamed Nasheed, former prime minister of the Maldives who now leads a group of countries called the Climate Vulnerable Forum, singled out the G20’s failure to be more ambitious about phasing out coal. “This is a welcome start,” Mr. Nasheed said in an emailed statement, “But it won’t stop the climate from heating more than 1.5 degrees and devastating large parts of the world, including the Maldives. G20 countries need to look at decommissioning coal plants at home and repowering their coal fleet infrastructure with clean energy.” (Note former Prime Minister Nasheed participated in Terra Praxis' full-day event on De-risking the Terawatt Transition at COP26.)

Eric Ingersoll and Kirsty Gogan, Co-Founders of Terra Praxis, joined the panel on Big Ideas: is repowering coal the largest carbon abatement opportunity in the world? At the start of 2020 we argued that urgent actions, unusual strategies and unexpected allies would need to be a feature of the 2020’s, if we are to get on track to meet decarbonization goals. We have been looking for such ever since and believe we have found a big idea to bring to everyone’s attention. The live program was kicked off with a sneak preview of this idea with others.

Watch Kirsty Gogan and Eric Ingersoll of Terra Praxis in a video of this event led by the NICE Future initiative at the 12th Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM12), which took place in Chile (May 30 – June 4, 2021). The discussion expanded on nuclear technology’s system flexibility benefits, presenting new applications that target hard-to-abate sectors and enable re-use of existing infrastructure without emissions, including the opportunity to repower coal fleets making them cleaner and more flexible. Note: Eric presents REPOWER at 42.30 mins and then Kirsty has a brief conversation with Rumina Velshi, President and CEO of the Canadian Safety Nuclear Association.

Terra Praxis Co-Founders, Kirsty Gogan and Eric Ingersoll were invited to speak at the 2020 ANS Winter meeting, where they presented on transforming nuclear power plant delivery models from FOAK to NOAK.