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.
Climate change is an energy problem. We only have 28 years to replace fossil fuels and double our overall energy supply. 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. As you reflect on our 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.
TerraPraxis Climate Solution Profile
The TerraPraxis ‘Repowering Coal’ system is a fast, low-cost 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. This initiative is designed for radical cost reduction to enable production of reliable, competitive, clean energy, rapidly repowering the 2TW global coal fleet and cutting carbon emissions by 40%. The repowering system transforms coal plants into flexible clean generators, making them better partners for renewables on the grid. This paper describes a fast, low-cost, and repeatable strategy to repower hundreds of existing coal plants that would otherwise continue to burn coal, or whose closure would cause economic harm to communities.
TerraPraxis Climate Solution Profile
In September 2020, TerraPraxis and LucidCatalyst published the Missing Link to a Livable Climate report. This brief contains its main findings, key messages, and interesting facts on how we can still meet the Paris Goals with proven, ready technology and with no major investments.
How Hydrogen-Enabled Synthetic Fuels Can Help Deliver The Paris Goals
Our report shows that it’s not too late to still meet the Paris goals — but only if we are prepared to make major investments in clean hydrogen production. There is simply no other way to make the numbers add up — this truly is the missing link we need to maintain a livable climate on this planet.
This excellent report skilfully shows how nuclear energy helps meet all 17 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. No other electricity generation technology can match this diversity of beneficial impacts... The NNWI strongly endorses “Beautiful Nuclear: Driving Deep Decarbonisation”. - Tim Yeo, Chair, The New Nuclear Watch Institute and former Chair of the UK Environment Select Committee
TerraPraxis staff have worked on the following publications through their affiliations with other organisations.
This new National Academies’ report discusses how the US could support the successful commercialization of advanced nuclear reactors with near-term actions to establish policies and practices. Kirsty Gogan is a member of the Committee responsible for the this report.
Repowering coal plant infrastructure with clean heat sources such as nuclear and geothermal energy is crucial if we want to reach the Paris Goals of Net Zero by 2050. Luckily, several colleagues and organzations are now doing very through analysis to turn this into a reality. This article, written by our colleagues from QuantifiedCarbon (QCL) proposes and analyzes a solution that will enable the flexibility of electricity production of new nuclear energy while avoiding the stranding of existing fossil fuel assets and local job losses.
Nuclear Energy in the Hydrogen Economy
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 were honoured to contribute both a Foreword and a chapter.
Read this if you want to get a quick and realistic understanding of how SMRs could be a game-changer. This new report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), available as a pre-print, is the secretariats' view on SMRs. It talks about three major areas (1) Understanding SMRs (2) What will it take to make SMRs a success and (3) What's next for SMRs. The last chapter provides a comprehensive list of IAEA activities to support the SMR deployment.
Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Supply Chain
This DOE study estimates potential savings for coal plant owners, and benefits for regions: “To replace a large coal plant, nuclear overnight costs of capital could decrease by 15%-35% when compared to greenfield construction, through the reuse of infrastructure. This aligns with TerraPraxis estimates: “Converting plants to run on AMRs will deliver capital cost saving of 28%-35% (compared with new nuclear plant) and 9%-28% reduction in levelized cost of energy.” (WNN, 2022a). This is also consistent with analysis based on Kairos Power SMR design (Bartela et al., 2021), and C2N#3 approach.
IEA's report examines how nuclear energy can help address the crises of energy and climate. The study team acknowledges benefitting from TerraPraxis' work: “the replacement of coal-fired plants with SMRs, such as that of TerraPraxis which aims to prepare standardised and pre-licensed designs supported by automated project development and design tools.” “In today’s context of 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's head Fatih Birol.
The Global Debate
IAEA Director General and leading experts discuss current issues in nuclear energy in this new book by the IAEA. Our Missing Link report (Missing Link to a Livable Climate: How Hydrogen-Enabled Synthetic Fuels Can Help Deliver Paris Goals) is referenced and discussed in Chapter 6 "The Challenge of Climate Change—Complete Energy Transformation: No Nuclear, No Net Zero," by Tim Stone, and also in Chapter 13 "The Humanitarian Atom: The Role of Nuclear Power in Addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals," by Sam Bilbao Y Leon and John Lindberg.
A Plan to Accelerate California’s Clean Energy Transition
TerraPraxis informs a report published by Clean Air Task Force & Environmental Defense Fund.
TerraPraxis informs a report published by LucidCatalyst & ClearPath. TerraPraxis colleagues John Herter and Ian Woodhouse conducted transmission and interconnection queue analysis for this report.
Policymakers of many countries, even those that have taken a more passive approach toward decarbonization, have started to define the dates by which their countries will completely abandon coal as an energy source. On 25 September 2020 Poland decided that it will close its coal plants by 2049, exploring viable techno-economic solutions that meet this policy objective is key to achieving its goals and mission. This paper by our colleagues from QuantifiedCarbon (QCL) studied the retrofit decarbonization of coal units using a low-carbon heat source to an existing brownfield coal site.
A Vision for Zero-Carbon Energy "Everywhere"
Superhot rock (SHR) has been called the “holy grail” of geothermal energy—because, in most of the world, SHR could provide competitive, zero-carbon, dispatchable power and support zero-carbon hydrogen fuel production. It is one of the very few high-energy-density, zero-carbon resources that could replace fossil energy around the globe. With significant private and public investment, SHR could plausibly be commercialized within 10-15 years. John Herter and Eric Ingersoll of TerraPraxis contributed to this important Clean Air Task Force (CATF) report.
Aurora Energy Research and Urenco
Urenco published the findings from an independent study that it initiated with Aurora Energy Research to investigate the benefits of deploying both nuclear and renewables in hydrogen production, to support the energy transition and meet UK climate targets. To facilitate rapid decarbonisation and cut dependency on fossil fuels, both nuclear and renewables are needed for power and hydrogen production. The report was supported by the IAEA, EDF and LucidCatalyst.
De-Risking, De-Scoping, and Lowering the Cost of Achieving Net Zero
LucidCatalyst published this Insights Report summary version of the the Aurora Energy Research (AER) hydrogen study that concluded that combining nuclear energy and renewables in the UK energy system can eliminate dependence on fossil fuels, lower emissions, and lower the total cost of achieving UK Net Zero. LucidCatalyst was on the project team that informed the full report, available below.
Net Zero 2050
LucidCatalyst contributed to this ground-breaking new modelling report just published by NNL demonstrating the role nuclear can play in delivering the UK’s net zero goals. This is the first time that such diverse, scalable and low-cost applications for nuclear technologies have been fully represented across the whole energy system.
Authors Forsberg and Ingersoll write that the viability of nuclear power ultimately depends on economics. The most important factor is an efficient supply chain, including on-site construction practices. This is the basis for the low capital cost of light water reactors from China and South Korea. The design can significantly affect capital cost through its impact on supply chain. The question is, how can advanced reactors boost revenue and reduce cost?