JISEA News, December 17, 2020
The definition of clean energy doesn’t always include nuclear energy, but it’s one of the world’s largest sources of low-carbon electricity after hydropower. When considering greenhouse gas emissions, nuclear has the potential to be a key part of clean energy. Since 2011, the Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis (JISEA) has explored the potential for increased integration of nuclear and renewables in the evolving power grid. Nuclear-renewable hybrid energy systems are physically coupled facilities that include both nuclear and renewable energy sources to produce electricity and another commodity
product such as fuel, thermal energy, hydrogen, or desalinated water. They can provide electricity when the grid needs it and produce the commodity during other hours, increasing the economic benefit of the nuclear reactor. In 2017, building upon the early reports, JISEA studied the economic potential of tightly coupled nuclear-renewable hybrid energy systems that produce hydrogen and generate electricity. The systems were profitable in scenarios with higher electricity and natural gas prices, low hydrogen prices, and increased electricity price volatility. It explores widescale hydrogen production and utilization in the United States to support the electric grid and play a larger role across industry and transportation. Researchers look at an electrolyzer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Using electricity produced by renewable or nuclear energy, an electrolyzer splits water into hydrogen and oxygen with virtually zero atmospheric emissions.
New technologies like advanced inverters are paving the way for innovative nuclear solutions to industrial decarbonization, grid integration, and solving other challenges related to the clean energy transition. A recent study on novel multi-input, multi-output hybrid energy systems that synergistically incorporate diverse energy sources, including renewable, nuclear, and fossil with carbon capture, to provide sustainable, cost-effective, and reliable power, heat, mobility, and other energy services. Scientists has identified a viable path forward for these energy systems—a major step toward understanding today’s most complex energy challenges. Full article is available at:
