Demystifying Coal Repurposing within the World Power Transition – CleanTechnica – TechnoNews

Join each day information updates from CleanTechnica on e-mail. Or comply with us on Google Information!

The repurposing of coal crops is gaining buzz. In a brand new article sequence, Discovering (Re)objective, we break down what it’s and why it issues.

Strain to speed up a managed phaseout of unabated coal has been constructing worldwide to realize net-zero targets and curb local weather change. Alongside retirement, “repurposing” coal crops is surfacing as a key technique for regulators, utilities, and plant homeowners in rising markets to fulfill these objectives, particularly the place entry to low-cost clear know-how and financing is restricted. Current IEA reviews spotlight the potential of repurposing coal crops, for instance for elevated flexibility, to assist meet power transition targets. This strategy is central to initiatives like Indonesia’s Simply Power Transition Partnership, the place coal plant repurposing is a cornerstone of its managed phaseout technique. Moreover, varied organizations, together with the Carbon Belief, CIF, and WEF have revealed instruments and guides on coal plant repurposing.

Discovering one of the simplest ways to repurpose a coal plant is a posh and troublesome course of to navigate. First, there’s a variety of attainable know-how choices. Second, lots of the know-how choices contain trade-offs in long-term local weather influence, funding wants, job creation, bankability, and system reliability. Context-based technical and monetary particulars are important in balancing these trade-offs and understanding how and when a coal repurposing challenge can transfer ahead. Getting the specifics a few coal repurposing strategy will in the end increase its credibility as an emissions discount device; however it’s simpler mentioned than performed.

That is the primary article in our sequence to demystify repurposing by clarifying what it’s and the way decision-makers ought to take into account repurposing choices, drawing on sensible and real-world case research. On this first article, we begin with the fundamentals of what repurposing is, when it may make sense, and its key trade-offs.

Eradicating the thrill: what, actually, is coal plant repurposing?

Coal plant repurposing entails reusing, refurbishing, or retrofitting a coal-fired energy plant for brand spanking new makes use of, new modes of operation, or each. It usually entails tasks on the coal plant website and authentic interconnection level.

So, why pursue coal plant repurposing? Repurposing coal crops can present priceless grid companies to assist reliability and grid operations. When applied strategically, it could assist overcome the near-term challenges to scaling up clear power, like monetary and technical constraints, whereas lowering interim emissions and enabling continued financial alternatives for employees and communities.

On condition that repurposing needs to be utilized as a transition technique to assist grid operations as grids decarbonize, RMI categorizes repurposing approaches primarily based on their position and performance in sustaining grid reliability: post-retirement reuse, operational flexibility, and decrease emissions steady output (LECO). A number of tasks worldwide have already been applied beneath these approaches.

Publish-retirement reuse

Publish-retirement reuse is feasible if a coal plant’s era might be eliminated or changed with out affecting reliability. The location and a few gear might be reused for a clear power challenge that maintains partial power era capability, or for different infrastructure that helps grid stability. Publish-retirement reuse has primarily occurred in two methods: reuse of interconnection infrastructure for renewable amenities like clear repowering tasks in the US, and conversion to synchronous condensers like in Australia to assist with frequency and voltage management.

Operational flexibility

On this class, repurposed coal crops present versatile or load-following companies to permit peak shifting and assist the combination of rising shares of variable renewable power sources. With out repurposing, coal energy crops usually function repeatedly at a gradual output stage, making it difficult to regulate their era to accommodate fluctuations in renewable power availability or grid demand. The adoption of this strategy can normally be pursued when lowering or canceling coal plant output is not going to have an effect on grid reliability throughout low and intermediate internet load hours. There are two foremost technological options being applied for operational flexibility: versatile coal era and power storage.

Versatile coal energy era is a technological resolution the place, by retrofits and gear upgrades, coal crops can begin up shortly, function at decrease minimal secure masses, and enhance ramp charges. Given it entails continued reliance on coal, this know-how is seen solely as a transitional automobile to make sure grid reliability as clear power scales. A cleaner and commercially accessible different to offer this flexibility and/or ancillary companies is stand-alone power storage. These storage methods can take the type of conventional batteries (e.g., lithium-ion or iron-air) or thermal storage, the place electrical energy is used to warmth thermal mass supplies (equivalent to molten salts), like Challenge Alba in Chile.

Decrease emissions steady output (LECO)

In pockets of the grid dealing with reliability considerations over prolonged time intervals, “firm” era assets could also be wanted. The target of LECO is to repurpose a coal plant to proceed offering steady or secure era, whereas nonetheless lowering emissions. In rising economies with very younger coal fleets, LECO could be a possible different to the business-as-usual operation of the coal plant. This strategy is normally the “last resort” because it takes the smallest step towards a profitable transition in contrast with different approaches and is usually pricey primarily based on the know-how choices for LECO right now.

There are a number of proposed technological options to cut back the emissions influence of steady coal plant operation, like retrofitting CFPPs to co-fire with, or convert totally to, different fuels equivalent to biomass and ammonia. Small modular nuclear reactors supply a extra compact different to conventional nuclear energy crops; and carbon seize, utilization, and storage has been proposed as a future possibility for mitigating emissions from remaining unabated crops — although the anticipated share of that is low.

Navigating repurposing selections and trade-offs

Whereas these approaches are primarily centered on sustaining grid reliability or assembly required electrical energy companies, there are different objectives or outcomes to pursue when evaluating repurposing choices. These embody electrical energy prices, local weather, jobs, and monetary viability. Many of those objectives could also be at odds with one another. For instance, a flexibility service could also be required within the grid, but it surely may not be remunerated sufficient to make it financially engaging. Furthermore, near-term advantages of repurposing might be outweighed by long-term penalties (like fossil gas lock-in) if planning for repurposing doesn’t assist a widespread shift to scrub power. Asset-level outcomes can also have ripple results at a system-level, the place selecting a sure repurposing pathway could necessitate different off-site actions to complement the repurposing choice in parallel.

The idea of coal repurposing holds promise as a possible technique for transitioning away from fossil fuels; nevertheless, its effectiveness and feasibility rely closely on the precise circumstances of every case. When used as a “catch-all” resolution with out setting clear objectives, it could appear much less credible as a option to scale back emissions. Moreover, navigating the intricacies of repurposing can show difficult for plant homeowners and policymakers alike. To handle this conundrum, RMI’s coal repurposing article sequence will delve into these complexities, offering concrete examples that illustrate vital tradeoffs that totally different choice makers would possibly take into account of their coal repurposing plan.

RMI is grateful to Bloomberg Philanthropies for his or her beneficiant assist of this work.

By Selena Kay Galeos, Diego Angel Hakim, Tyeler Matsuo © 2024 RMI. Revealed with permission. Courtesy of RMI.