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The effect of a nuclear baseload in a zero-carbon electricity system: An analysis for the UK

Cárdenas, Bruno; Ibanez, Roderaid; Rouse, James; Swinfen-Styles, Lawrie; Garvey, Seamus

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Authors

BRUNO CARDENAS Bruno.Cardenas@nottingham.ac.uk
Senior Research Fellow in Thermo-Mechanical Energy Storage

Roderaid Ibanez

JAMES ROUSE JAMES.ROUSE@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Assistant Professor

Lawrie Swinfen-Styles



Abstract

This paper explores the effect of having a nuclear baseload in a 100% carbon-free electricity system The study analyses numerous scenarios based on different penetrations of conventional nuclear, wind and solar PV power, different levels of overgeneration and different combinations between medium and long duration energy stores (hydrogen and compressed air, respectively) to determine the configuration that achieves the lowest total cost of electricity (TCoE). At their current cost, new baseload nuclear power plants are too expensive. Results indicate the TCoE is minimised when demand is supplied entirely by renewables with no contribution from conventional nuclear. However, small modular reactors may achieve costs of ∼£60/MWh (1.5× current wind cost) in the future. With such costs, supplying ∼80% of the country's electricity demand with nuclear power could minimise the TCoE. In this scenario, wind provides the remaining 20% plus a small percentage of overgeneration (∼2.5%). Hydrogen in underground caverns provides ∼30.5 TWh (81 days) of long-duration energy storage while CAES systems provide 2.8 TWh (∼8 days) of medium-duration storage. This configuration achieves costs of ∼65.8 £/MWh. Batteries (required for short duration imbalances) are not included in the figure. The TCoE achieved will be higher once short duration storage is accounted for.

Citation

Cárdenas, B., Ibanez, R., Rouse, J., Swinfen-Styles, L., & Garvey, S. (2023). The effect of a nuclear baseload in a zero-carbon electricity system: An analysis for the UK. Renewable Energy, 205, 256-272. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2023.01.028

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jan 6, 2023
Online Publication Date Jan 27, 2023
Publication Date 2023-03
Deposit Date Feb 27, 2023
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Renewable Energy
Print ISSN 0960-1481
Electronic ISSN 1879-0682
Publisher Elsevier BV
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 205
Pages 256-272
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2023.01.028
Keywords Nuclear baseload; Small modular reactors; Energy storage capacity; Renewable mix; Grid flexibility; Levelized cost electricity
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/17905854
Publisher URL https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148123000319
Additional Information This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: The effect of a nuclear baseload in a zero-carbon electricity system: An analysis for the UK; Journal Title: Renewable Energy; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2023.01.028; Content Type: article; Copyright: © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

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