Nuclear Cogeneration to Support a Net-Zero, High-Renewable Electricity Grid

Juan Matthews (), William Bodel () and Gregg Butler
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Juan Matthews: Faculty of Science and Engineering, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
William Bodel: Faculty of Science and Engineering, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
Gregg Butler: Faculty of Science and Engineering, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 24, 1-38

Abstract: UK Government projections anticipate increasing electricity use, provided by variable renewables (i.e., wind and solar PV). A side effect of increasing the proportion of variable renewable generation is increased support costs, including curtailment, energy storage, and (most significantly) the cost of supplying electricity for periods of high demand when variable renewable generation is low. As the proportion of variable renewable capacity increases, demand for supporting capacity increases but the capacity factor of the support generation decreases, raising the support costs. Using nuclear power for dedicated baseload supply makes the situation worse. This paper explores in the UK context an original low-cost solution using nuclear cogeneration with hydrogen production as the main application. Electricity is diverted at low cost to the grid at times of high demand when renewables are not available. This ensures nuclear maintains a high capacity factor. When higher temperature advanced systems become available, using thermal energy storage will increase the nuclear electrical capacity. This “Flexible Nuclear” scenario substantially reduces support costs for accommodating variable renewables, saving GBP 14 bn/yr and leading to an 80% reduction in CO 2 equivalent emissions, compared to a recent UK Government scenario utilising a large capacity of hydrogen and unabated gas generation at very low capacity factors.

Keywords: renewables; nuclear; natural gas; hydrogen; net zero; electricity supply (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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