Brussels, Belgium. November 18, 2024 – Today, with commitments being made by world leaders at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29), Terra Praxis announced solutions and progress with partners to help achieve these commitments and meet rising global demand for clean energy.
Speaking at the Belgium ‘Together Towards New Nuclear’ event, Terra Praxis announced that it has been awarded a U.S. Department of State grant to help facilitate the transition of Ukraine’s coal-fired power plants to advanced nuclear. Terra Praxis also introduced new AI for licensing capabilities to accelerate repowering of hundreds of retired coal sites with advanced nuclear, following collaboration with Microsoft. It is also launching a framework developed by the World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Terra Praxis and other stakeholders, to accelerate the deployment of advanced nuclear and SMRs.
“These developments with our partners represent concrete steps towards meeting rising global demand for reliable, clean, and competitive energy services including heat and power,” said Kirsty Gogan, Founding Director & Co-CEO, Terra Praxis. “They demonstrate meaningful headway towards scalable solutions needed to support an equitable and clean energy transition.”
The U.S. Department of State grant awarded to Terra Praxis and strategic partners aims to accelerate Ukraine’s conversion of coal-fired power plants to reliable and safe zero-carbon nuclear energy with small modular reactors (SMRs). Terra Praxis will demonstrate the capability of a REPOWER innovative standardized building system and digital project delivery tool to dramatically simplify coal-to-nuclear site design and project delivery; and make the investment case for fleet-wide repurposing of coal plants in Ukraine.
The U.S. and Ukraine partnership was announced yesterday by Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, Bonnie Jenkins, and the Ukraine Minister of Energy, German Galushchenko. The Terra Praxis project is part of a $30 million project in the Foundational Infrastructure for the Responsible Use of Small Modular Reactor Technology (FIRST) program that will help position Ukraine to take a post-war leadership role on secure and safe nuclear energy. They were joined by U.S. Department of Energy Acting Assistant Secretary, Michael Goff, and an executive from the Electric Power Research Institute.
Terra Praxis also introduced new AI capabilities to the advanced nuclear market that will significantly accelerate the licensing and permitting processes for advanced nuclear energy and other clean energy sources. By integrating with Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, Terra Praxis is bringing these transformative capabilities to industry and government, with the potential to advance preliminary license applications to repurpose hundreds of retiring and retired coal plant and nuclear sites for advanced nuclear development.
A recent report from the U.S. Department of Energy identified the opportunity to add up to 174 GWe of new nuclear capacity at 145 retired or retiring coal plant sites, and up to 95 GWe additional capacity at existing nuclear plant sites. Terra Praxis is designing solutions to operationalize this opportunity to maximize existing transmission assets, protect jobs, increase energy security, and massively boost the supply of reliable clean energy.
Typically, the cost of producing an Early Site Permit (ESP) application for one site ranges between $25M-$40M, representing a major barrier to clean energy development today. The AI copilot can draft preliminary ESP applications, radically enhancing the productivity of permitting engineers and radically reducing the time and cost to produce those early drafts – potentially from years to hours or days – and for a fraction of the cost.
The World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Accenture, Terra Praxis, and other stakeholders across the clean energy ecosystem, has released a framework to accelerate the deployment of advanced nuclear and SMRs to help meet rising global demand for clean energy. The publication A Collaborative Framework for Accelerating Advanced Nuclear and Small Modular Reactor Deployment serves as a tool to align stakeholders on actions within nine priority areas.
The collaboration between the Forum and Terra Praxis has consisted of a year-long series of engagements throughout 2024 to forge collaboration around core actions that can increase investment in scalable advanced nuclear and also ensure these investments deliver broader social, economic, and environmental value.
The nonprofit Terra Praxis is executing an integrated REPOWER strategy to deploy fast, low-cost, and repeatable solutions for repurposing existing coal plants and other energy intensive infrastructure (e.g., steel, cement, aviation, shipping) to continue operating with emissions-free power, heat, and steam supplied by mass-manufactured heat sources.
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About Terra Praxis
Terra Praxis is a global nonprofit organization committed to universal access to affordable, reliable, and clean energy that empowers people and protects nature. Powered by philanthropy, we innovate and accelerate scalable, equitable solutions to decarbonize the largest sources of global emissions (the difficult-to-decarbonize sectors of coal-for-power, industrial heat, aviation, and heavy transport). Terra Praxis is leading a global consortium – including governments, regulators, academics, nonprofits, finance, and industry stakeholders – dedicated to harnessing the power of emissions-free heat sources and power to decarbonize the largest sources of global carbon emissions. The consortium has already attracted some of the world’s largest and most innovative global leaders in the critical disciplines required for success.
Contact: Sarah Ingersoll, Director of Strategic Communications, Terra Praxis Sarah.Ingersoll@TerraPraxis.org