Repowering Coal

Co-host Anna and Megan Pulliam, TerraPraxis Chief Development Officer, talk about the greatest carbon abatement opportunity in the world: Repowering Coal Fleets with emissions-free heat sources, such as fission and fusion reactors. This initiative, led by TerraPraxis , aims to convert the world's 2400 coal plants in the world into clean energy sources, bringing countless benefits to human health and economic prosperity for communities.

On the day this episode was recorded, Germany shut down its last 3 nuclear power plants - active assets producing massive amounts of clean energy. Michael Liebreich and Kirsty Gogan discuss what drove this decision and its consequences. They also share their thoughts on how nuclear energy's role in the clean energy transition, though now recognized and proven, still struggles to make its way.

TerraPraxis featured as Brutal Tech's startup showcase.

"As a climate solution accelerator, TerraPraxis is accelerating solutions that have the potential to scale and have a significant impact on the decarbonization challenge."

Widespread impacts from climate change are already here. Our actions in this critical decade will determine the full extent of future impacts on our children and grandchildren. In our 2022 Annual Review, you will see how, with our world-class sustainability partners, Terra Praxis is the only entity designing a scalable, rapid repowering system to decarbonize the entire global coal fleet by 2050. This is how we plan to eliminate one-third of global carbon emissions and provide a method for supplying affordable, reliable, and emissions-free energy to billions of people. With global coal consumption reaching record highs in 2022, solutions like this are needed now more than ever.

TerraPraxis and Danish floating nuclear power plant developer Seaborg have agreed to assess Seaborg's Compact Molten Salt Reactor (CMSR) as a potential heat source to support the rapid decarbonisation of the global coal fleet.

To meet their net-zero goals, companies need support across their energy transition journeys to reduce CO2 emissions, capture and store carbon, generate green hydrogen, repower coal, and optimize wind turbines. The new Microsoft Center of Excellence will showcase leading energy transition solutions and give customers an opportunity to learn first-hand the solutions offered by Microsoft and our global partner ecosystem.

US climate change not-for-profit TerraPraxis has proposed repowering 5,000 to 7,000 coal plants globally with SMRs between 2030 and 2050. Whether replacing coal in power plants or supplying industrial processes, SMR reactors have the potential to be installed in a packaged fashion based on standardized designs and processes. This should mean they can be deployed more quickly and with greater certainty over the likes of outcomes, costs and regulatory approvals than nuclear power has to date.

TerraPraxis has been listed among eight of the most high-impact, cost-effective, evidence-based organizations fighting climate change. Why Johannes Ackva and Luisa Sandkühler of Founders Pledge recommend TerraPraxis: “We believe that TerraPraxis continues to do incredibly important work around shaping a conversation for advanced nuclear to address critical decarbonization challenges, such as the decarbonization of hard-to-decarbonize sectors and the conundrum of how to deal with lots of very new coal plants that are unlikely to be prematurely retired.”

"What I love about what you’re doing is that you’re taking the opportunity to look at these coal plants, and not just close them down, but turn them into something new and better,” Microsoft President and Vice Chair, Brad Smith, said at the launch of our new EVALUATE application, enabling every coal plant owner in the world to assess their coal plant for conversion to clean energy.

This fall Founders Pledge is celebrating the two year anniversary of their Climate Change Fund. Thanks to this fund, TerraPraxis was able to quick start operations in 2020 and continue its growth and expand its work streams throughout these years. This post will give a high-level overview of how the Fund's money has been hard at work (i) accelerating innovation in neglected technologies, (ii) avoiding carbon lock-in in emerging economies, (iii) promoting policy leadership and paradigm shaping, and (iv) catalytically growing organizations during the past two years.

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Small modular reactors (SMRs) could play a key role in plans to replace the heart of coal-fired power plants with a low - or zero-emission heat source.

Spotted: The Paris Agreement states that emissions need to be reduced by 45 per cent by 2030 and reach Net Zero by 2050 in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Although many now consider that this target is beyond reach, it is still possible to stall warming at 2 degrees Celsius. One key to reaching this is to eliminate the use of fossil fuels as soon as possible, but current industry and deployment models for advanced heat sources cannot deliver fast enough or at the scale required. Startup TerraPraxis is aiming to change this.

As the dirtiest of the fossil fuels, ending the use of coal-fired power stations is imperative for achieving net zero. TerraPraxis' co-founders and Managing Partners, Kirsty Gogan believe they have a solution to accelerate this process whilst meeting energy needs.

In this episode of The Stand, Eamon Dunphy, host, presenter and editor is joined by Kirsty Gogan, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of TerraPraxis from COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, to talk about the climate challenges ahead for global populations.

On November 7, 2022, TerraPraxis made available for the first time its new EVALUATE application at COP27. This app enables coal plant owners and investors around the world to evaluate hundreds of coal plants for fast, low-cost, and repeatable conversion to emissions-free power generation sources.