Terra Praxis and Microsoft enter a strategic collaboration to repower coal-fired power plants with advanced heat sources across the globe. “Microsoft can help Terra Praxis accelerate the benefits that repowering can bring to each community, whilst simultaneously initiating hundreds of projects by leveraging your unparalleled digital capability, and the scale of your global market presence” said Kirsty Gogan, Terra Praxis Founder.

The NICE Future initiative published a digest which showcases examples of leading nuclear produced hydrogen initiatives which can be used to power hard-to-electrify sectors such as transport and heavy industry. Eric Ingersoll and Kirsty Gogan, Founders of Terra Praxis, were honoured to contribute both a Foreword and a chapter: "While it sounds daunting to achieve the scale of production needed, the scalability and power density of advanced heat sources are a major benefit. By moving to a manufacturing model with modular designs, it is possible to deliver hundreds of units in multiple markets around the world each year to produce abundant clean hydrogen-based synthetic fuels. To achieve global market penetration at the speed and scale required by the climate emergency, these drop-in substitute fuels must be delivered at prices that can outcompete fossil fuels within 10 years, and at a scale that can displace the 100 million barrels of oil that are currently consumed around the world each day." 

Terra Praxis will deploy a set of tools to automate the design and regulatory approval needed to decarbonize coal facilities with nuclear power, helping transition one of the world's largest sources of carbon to zero emissions. To do this, Terra Praxis intends to develop a software application with Microsoft that will analyze the existing coal fleet to determine the best avenue to retrofit the plants, saving coal plant owners time and money while giving their assets and the communities around them a new lease on life for decades to come.

A digital solution will tackle a significant decarbonization challenge—decarbonizing a global fleet of 2,400 coal plants to run on clean energy. Terra Praxis, a non-profit focused on actionable solutions for climate and prosperity, is collaborating with Microsoft to deliver a digital solution to tackle a significant decarbonization challenge—repurposing over 2,400 coal-fired power plants worldwide to run on carbon-free energy. The relationship began during last year's Microsoft Global Hackathon, where the team working with Terra Praxis won the Hack for Sustainability challenge sponsored by Microsoft President Brad Smith.

Terra Praxis and Microsoft enter a strategic collaboration to tackle the world’s biggest problem: repowering coal-fired power plants with advanced heat sources. The signing ceremony was featured by Brad Smith, Microsoft President, Kirsty Gogan and Eric Ingersoll, Co-Founders of Terra Praxis. "This is just the beginning of our shared mission - to develop these tools and bring them to market. We are really honored to be working with Microsoft, and to make repowering coal a reality with you at the speed and at the scale demanded by the climate emergency”, said Kirsty Gogan. Terra Praxis is looking to combine its deep expertise in energy with Microsoft to build and deploy a set of tools to automate the design and regulatory approval needed to decarbonize coal facilities with nuclear power, helping transition one of the world’s largest sources of carbon to zero emissions.

This DOE report find hundreds of retiring coal plant sites could convert to nuclear, adding new jobs, increasing economic benefit, and significantly improving environmental conditions. This coal-to-nuclear transition could add a substantial amount of clean electricity to the grid, helping the U.S. reach its net-zero emissions goals by 2050.

The solution to the world’s energy problem could be simple — even elegant. So much so that we could look back and wonder why it took us so long to finally realize it. According to the world’s foremost experts on advanced nuclear technology and policy, the choice is up to us.

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We know that climate change is an energy problem. Now we have 28 years to replace fossil fuels and double our overall energy supply. As you reflect on our first  2021 Annual Review, we hope you will be as energized as we are by our success in mobilizing a broad coalition of public and private sector leaders and building momentum for innovative climate solutions (for coal plant conversion, flexible co-generation, clean hydrogen, and synthetic fuels production). Our programs could accelerate the reduction of global carbon emissions by repurposing trillions of dollars of existing infrastructure to supply clean, affordable, and reliable energy to billions of people.

PEI’s Pamela Largue spoke to Rudy Koenig, independent energy advisor and Kirsty Gogan, co-founder of Terra Praxis about the current energy crisis in Europe, the rising appetite for nuclear energy and strategies that can mitigate some of the risks associated with nuclear. Both Gogan and Koenig agreed there is a need for clear strategic, political recognition, and commitment to understand the role of nuclear. Despite nuclear power’s controversial beginnings, perceptions and political positions are rapidly changing. By COP26 in Glasgow, said Kirsty Gogan, there was much more appetite for nuclear as politicians had a mandate to address the gas crisis.

In this episode of the Energy Transitions Podcast Kirsty Gogan, co-founder and managing partner of Terra Praxis and Ruediger Koenig, independent energy advisor, are interviewed by Pamela Largue discuss how the current need to ensure energy security in Europe has put nuclear energy's potential contribution in the energy crisis into perspective. As the experts talk about the overreliance on gas and the risks it entails when there is a supply shortage, Kirsty said: "When you start looking at your previous position about nuclear energy as being too risky, we don't like it, it is because -really- you didn't see any benefits that would make it worthwhile".

Kirsty Gogan participated at the Aspen Energy Week on August 2, Session 5: "New Energy Symbiosis and Systems Thinking", where she presented on Terra Praxis REPOWER. Aspen Energy Week has served as a pivotal forum for candid conversations among a diverse group of leading energy system actors. The forum’s discussions focused on the future of the domestic energy system broadly, and in particular encourages leaders to devise, design, and deploy solutions to the climate crisis. It convened energy entrepreneurs, industry executives, regulators, policymakers, and thought leaders in a set of moderated discussions that draw upon the full range of perspectives in the room in pursuit of breakthrough ideas and action.

“We are encouraged by the EU parliament’s recognition of nuclear as a necessary solution to achieving Net Zero emissions by 2050. This will enable investment in the lowest cost decarbonization - which is long term operation of existing nuclear plants - as well as grow investment in new advanced nuclear technologies, which have the potential to dramatically accelerate decarbonization across power, heat, industry and transport, while protecting our planet, and growing human prosperity.” Kirsty Gogan, Terra Praxis Co-Founder.

The IAEA held the 2nd IAEA Workshop on Fusion Enterprises from 11 to 12 July 2022. This workshop discussed the commercialization paths for fusion by bringing together the pioneering actors in private enterprises. Professionals from relevant fields to provided their views on the market demands for fusion, and whether the private sector could deliver what the market is demanding. Kirsty Gogan, Co-Founder of Terra Praxis, was invited as an expert speaker to talk about "Fusion in the Future Energy Market".

The IEA released this new report that will look at how nuclear energy could help address two major crises – energy and climate – facing the world today. The study team acknowledges having benefitted from meetings from Terra Praxis and highlights our repowering coal project: “Various initiatives can facilitate the replacement of coal-fired plants with SMRs, such as that of Terra Praxis which aims to prepare standardized and pre- licensed designs supported by automated project development and design tools.” “In today’s context of the global energy crisis, skyrocketing fossil fuel prices, energy security challenges, and ambitious climate commitments, I believe nuclear power has a unique opportunity to stage a comeback,” said IEA executive director Fatih Birol.

As part of the Nuclear Innovation: Clean Energy Future (NICE Future) initiative, Eric Ingersoll - Co-Founder of Terra Praxis, moderated a webinar on clean synthetic fuels. The webinar included experts across several industries and organizations about the prospects for nuclear-derived zero-carbon fuels. Participants learnt about innovative ways nuclear power can be utilized to efficiently produce hydrogen for use in synthetic fuels, which in turn can decarbonize transportation and industrial sectors. Eric was joined by Jason Marcinkoski, Program Manager, Office of Nuclear Energy, U.S. Department of Energy, on behalf of the CEM NICE Future initiative and Jose Bermudez, Energy Analyst, International Energy Agency, on behalf of the CEM Hydrogen Initiative who gave introductory remarks. Speakers included: Elina Teplinsky, Partner, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP; Carlos Leipner, Director, Global Nuclear Energy Strategy, Clean Air Task Force (CATF); Thibault Cantat, Research Scientist, French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA); Troels Schonfeldt, Co-founder and CEO, Seaborg Technologies; Chad Richards, Director, Nuclear Innovation Institute (NII)

Kirsty Gogan spoke at the first edition of the WiNx Special Event, held on June 28-29, 2022 in Provence, south of France. The event was co-hosted by the GWNET, and focused on the topic "Women & Energy Transition". During the event, an Expert Panel provided the audience with key insights from the latest global energy trends and policy decisions, focusing on clean energy sources. It featured high-level speakers from different women-led networks and energy industries and provided an opportunity to support technology development and show the diversity in Energy Transition goals.

This article by David Dalton describes REPOWER. Terra Praxis has assembled a consortium of partners including Bryden Wood, Microsoft, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and University at Buffalo, along with a consortium of global utilities, to launch the ‘Repowering Coal’ initiative. The aim is to provide standardized, pre-licensed designs supported by automated project development and design tools to enable customers to be ready to start construction on their SMR projects in the late 2020s. “The result of this repowering will be carbon-free power plants that are cheaper to operate than before, and to ensure continuity for communities reliant on these plants for energy, jobs, and continued economic development,” Eric Ingersoll, co-founder and managing partner of Terra Praxis said. “The challenge is not only to build enough clean electricity generation to power the world, but to do so quickly while building the infrastructure required to decarbonize end-use sectors such as heat, industry, and transport” Kirsty Gogan said at the Nuclear Innovation Conference in Amsterdam.

This discussion addressed marginalized communities that are potentially interested in new nuclear power projects, evaluate resource needs for a just transition, survey and prioritize approaches to mitigate disproportionate impacts from the transition away from fossil fuels and towards clean energy, and discuss potential approaches and momentum to increase the diversity of talent in the nuclear energy sector. The session was moderated by Jessica Lovering, Good Energy Collective and Fastest Path to Zero Institute and included discussants: Lee Anderson - Utility Workers Union of America, Kirsty Gogan - Terra Praxis, Jake Kincer - Energy for Growth Hub and Trevor McDonald - Duke Energy Corporation.

As a growing number of states and the federal government show interest in and support for advanced nuclear technologies, there is a need to understand the financial risks associated with bringing these technologies to commercialization. During this webinar, experts in the nuclear industry shared how risks to ratepayers can be mitigated in the construction of new nuclear plants with a focus on federal-state coordination, risk mitigation through reactor design, and market development considerations. Moderator: Hon. Eric Skrmetta, Louisiana. Panelists: Jeffrey Brown, Managing Director, Energy Futures Financing Forum and Adjunct Professor, Stanford School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences; Judi Greenwald, Executive Director, Nuclear Innovation Alliance; Kirsty Gogan, Co-Founder, Terra Praxis and Managing Partner, LucidCatalyst

Listen to this podcast where David Roberts interviews Johannes Ackva, Researcher at Founders Pledge, talking about why effective altruism focuses on climate and why this is so important. In his words, '...solving climate change is related to solving other really big problems, in particular air pollution and energy poverty. So if you think about clean energy abundance as one possible solution for climate change, that will actually solve those issues'. Founders Pledge has supported Terra Praxis since its beginning. In November 2021 Terra Praxis was listed among seven of the most high-impact, cost-effective, evidence-based organizations fighting climate change by recommendation of Founders Pledge.

The first ever Powered On Live shone a spotlight on the ever-changing electrical industry. On day 1, Kirsty Gogan participated on the fireside chat: Is there a need for nuclear power?. The UK currently leads the way in offshore wind capacity, but with the recent Energy Security Strategy, it seems that nuclear will be a key source of electricity for the country going forward. But with much opposition from environmental groups and even the Scottish Government, is committing to more nuclear power really the right strategy? Kirsty will share the event with Professor Gregg Butler, Head of Strategic Assessment at the Dalton Institute at the University of Manchester and Jonty Haynes, Senior Analyst, Regen. At the fireside Kirsty expressed: "We should consider what the risk to failing to decarbonize is..."

The priority for preventing irreversible climate change is decarbonization, not the creation of energy systems which are 100% dependent on renewables, according to a new report from LucidCatalyst. It says expanding the use of nuclear energy could enable faster progress towards a sustainable and prosperous future for all. Terra Praxis contributed to the dissemination of the report and presented it at international fora such as the Nordic Nuclear Forum where the report was launched.

Kirsty Gogan and Eric Ingersoll participated in the Nuclear Innovation Conference on June 8-9 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Kirsty was a keynote speaker at the opening session where she presented 'A future perspective for Nuclear Deep Decarbonization'. Kirsty was joined by Dr. Rita Baranwal - CTO at Westinghouse; Arnold Stokking - CEO at Brightsite and Bram Paul Jobse - CFO at EPZ. Eric, participated on the Advanced Session where he presented 'Regulations for advanced reactors'. Experts joining Eric include: Mike Christiansen - Copenhagen Atomics; Jim Reed - EDF-UK and will be moderated by Arjan Vreeling - NRG.

Kirsty Gogan participated on the third session of the Nordic Nuclear Forum, where she presented our latest report 'Beautiful Nuclear' authored by LucidCatalyst and endorsed by Terra Praxis, among several other organizations. The topics discussed were financing, wellbeing of society and, can competitiveness be improved by Supply Chain Optimization? The session was hosted by TVO. Speakers included: Christoper Eckerberg, Vice President Nuclear Decommissioning at Vattenfall; Jarmo Tanhua, CEO of Teollisuuden Voima Oy and Vakisasai Ramany, Senior VP, International Nuclear Development at EDF.

This article discusses the benefits of repowering coal power plants with advanced heat solutions. It is based on our Built Environment Matters podcast featuring Terra Praxis Co-founder Kirsty Gogan in conversation with Bryden Wood's Head of Global Systems, Jaimie Johnston MBE. To support Terra Praxis' REPOWER initiative, Bryden Wood is developing a standardized, scalable building system, configuring the design in such a way as to be able to meet any kind of site or plant requirements, while also accommodating a range of different heat sources. This is being achieved using a highly automated design, and a design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA) approach.

Bryden Wood has partnered with Terra Praxis for REPOWER, the largest single carbon abatement opportunity on the planet that could greatly accelerate the clean energy transition into being. Amanda Doyle spoke to Adrian La Porta, Technical Director of Process Engineering at design company Bryden Wood about replacing coal-fired boilers with nuclear reactors. In Adrian's words: ''Switching to nuclear reactors would provide a benefit to communities as the power plants remain operational'.

Eric Ingersoll, Co-Founder of Terra Praxis and James Lawless, Fianna Fáil TD, representing Kildare North shared an expert discussion about the need for decarbonization of Irish energy sectors other than electricity (industry, heat) and nuclear technologies which could be suitable for deep decarbonization of Irish energy. The online session was moderated by Sarah Cullen, Co-Founder of 18for0.

This article describes the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit 2022 panel “Beyond Baseload: Nuclear’s Role in the New Energy Landscape,” where Anthropocene’s partners and colleagues shed light on the applications and benefits of nuclear energy beyond baseload power. Moderator Dr. Jenifer Shafer (ARPA-E) was joined by Dr. Rita Baranwal (Westinghouse), Dr. Charles Forsberg (MIT), Dr. Jessica Lovering (Good Energy Collective), and Eric Ingersoll (Terra Praxis), who outlined the Terra Praxis “REPOWER” system, a fast, low-cost, and repeatable strategy to repower hundreds of existing coal plants that would otherwise continue to burn coal, and whose closure is likely to encounter fierce political resistance and cause economic harm to communities.

The ARPA-E summit convened in Denver, Colorado, from May 23 through 25. On Tuesday 24, Eric Ingersoll presented our REPOWER platform at the session 'Beyond Baseload: Nuclear’s Role in the New Energy Landscape'. Eric shared the panel with distinguished experts: Rita Baranwal, Chief Technology Officer at Westinghouse Electric Company; Dr. Charles Forsberg, Principal Research Scientist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Dr. Jessica Lovering, Co-Founder & Executive Director at Good Energy Collective and Dr. Jenifer Shafer, Program Director at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA‑E).

Kirsty appeared on the Sky News Daily Climate Show to support a windfall tax on oil companies' bumper profits and call on government to invest now in alleviating the cost-of-living crisis as well as new clean energy to protect consumers from future price volatility.

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