| Repurposing coal plants
How to repower 2 TWe of coal by 2050
Repowering of the existing global coal plant fleet with small modular reactors (SMRs) represents an immense carbon abatement opportunity suggests non-profit TerraPraxis. The key to rapid implementation is digital innovation in infrastructure, design, engineering, and construction
Eric Ingersoll and Kirsty Gogan TerraPraxis
Above: The world coal fleet (units tracked by Global Coal Plant Tracker)
The world has more than 2 TWe of coal fired installed capacity, producing roughly 12 Gt of CO2
per year. But shutting coal plants down worldwide is not a solution when the majority are less than 14 years old, and energy demand is soaring.
emissions per year, representing almost one-third of global total net emissions of 38.8 Gt of CO2
Even closing old coal plants in the USA, Canada, and Europe is difficult and controversial because the loss of jobs and revenues can be devastating for communities, and utilities continue to value the reliable electricity generated. Existing coal-fired power plants potentially offer enormous value by virtue of their established power markets, grid connections, cooling water access, real estate holdings, and experienced site personnel.
The TerraPraxis Repowering Coal concept is 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. It will deliver a substantial portion of the clean electricity required to achieve net zero by 2050 by replacing coal-fired boilers at existing power plants with SMRs, which could be ready for deployment as soon as 2028. This initiative is designed to achieve radical cost reduction to enable production of reliable, competitive, clean power, rapidly transforming the 2 TW global coal fleet and cutting carbon emissions by 40%. The proposed repowering system transforms the coal plants into flexible clean generators, making them better partners for renewables on the grid.
Converting 5000-7000 coal fired units globally between 2030 and 2050 (250-350 per year) will require a practical, streamlined strategy that can meet this rate of deployment. To be successful, the deployment model has to de-risk the construction process – the riskiest part of a new build project. Providing coal plant owners with a
high level of certainty about schedule and budget is necessary to facilitate the rapid and confident assessment, initiation, and completion of the repowering projects.
To achieve this vision, we have assembled a consortium of partners including tech-driven global design company Bryden Wood, Microsoft, KPMG, MIT, University of Buffalo, US Department of Energy, along with a consortium of global
utilities—to launch the Repowering Coal initiative. ● TerraPraxis is leading the development of an integrated cloud-based platform that radically reduces the time, investment and complexity required for coal plant owners to plan, licence, and construct their repowering projects, making repowering viable and achievable.
● Bryden Wood has designed a standardised building system, using a design-for- manufacture-and-assembly approach, and incorporating seismic isolation to eliminate the need for site redesign. The building system will be configurable to accommodate a range of
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