NRI Annual Review 2024 - Flipbook - Page 36
Other countries are also making
progress, and NRI Frontiers
invited a number of developers to
share insights into their current
projects. Ontario Power Group
(OPG) recounted how, in 2022,
OPG issued its inaugural nuclear
green bond and 昀椀nancing to
support the construction of
SMRs. OPG generates about
50% of the electricity in Ontario
and Canada, with the Ontario
independent operator forecasting
energy consumption to be
approximately 300 terawatt
hours by 2050, constituting a
2.7% increase annually. The
capacity growth is expected to
be double the current electricity
system, with nuclear expected
to play a key role. In fact, OPG is
considering more than doubling
capacity to meet the electricity
needs for the province of Ontario
alone. Indeed, reliable baseload,
low-carbon energy source from
SMRs will be necessary for
Canada to reduce its fossil fuel
usage. Flexibility is also key,
and some of the bigger utility
scale SMRs can be modularised
and combined to generate both
electricity and heat energy, as
well as power for district heating,
water desalination, hydrogen
production and process steam.
For the grid size, SMR OPG
have selected GE Hitachi’s
BWRX300 to be deployed at
the Darlington site beside the
existing station. The expectation
is to bring the 昀椀rst unit into
service by 2029. Darlington is
the only site in Canada that
is currently licensed to build
new nuclear with a completed
environmental assessment in
place. It has also bene昀椀tted from
project management experience,
expertise and processes carrying
through from its ongoing
refurbishment programme.
Indeed, during Darlington’s
36
lifetime extension refurbishment,
OPG identi昀椀ed over 4,000 lessons
learned from the 昀椀rst unit to
the second, with the learnings
signi昀椀cantly helping to reduce
future construction risk.
Historically, there has been a
lot of caution among investors
regarding nuclear projects.
However, in Canada investors are
comfortable with nuclear, so long
as the right contract mechanisms
are in place, as evidenced
by the success of the OPG
refurbishment. And as Pickering
becomes the likely next big
project refurbishment, con昀椀dence
is set to grow as investors see that
SMRs will be viewed in a riskappropriate context that readily
lends itself to 昀椀nancing.
Poland is another nation
heavily dependent on fossil fuel
consumption, especially coal.
Orlen Synthos Green Energy
described how the debate around
nuclear and SMRs is no longer
solely focused on decarbonisation
and industry, but has also
accelerated in the political
consciousness. This is the result
of the energy security questions
around the future of Russian
gas. Orlen Synthos’ initial
technology choice is the
GE Hitachi BWRX 300, and in
the energy systems of East
Europe coal-昀椀red boilers
have average sizes of 300
megawatts, making SMRs the
perfect replacement for coal.
Polish energy consumption is
expected to grow by 25% by
2050, but there is also planned
decommissioning of 20GWworth of existing coal-昀椀red
boilers in the country before
2040. As such, there will be a
demand production gap of 12
to 14 gigawatts of energy by
2035, which SMRs, alongside
renewables, will need to help
address. Poland has 60 million
citizens who are connected to
both the grid and to district
heating plants. So the business
case for SMRs is strong,
particularly as gas is no longer
an alternative to coal for Central
European countries.
Separately, X-Energy in the
US, made the point that to
decarbonise many sectors of
the economy is fundamentally
an energy problem, not just
an electricity problem. This is
because the future will comprise
rising energy demand across
the trio of power, heat and
transport sectors, all of which
must be decarbonised, and with
technologies that can provide the
optionality of both baseload and
昀氀exibility.
In the US, average capacity
factors of renewables are about
35% for wind, and about 25%
for solar. Nuclear in the US has
achieved a decadal average of
about 93% capacity factors,
but with the new nuclear
technologies that number can
rise further. X-Energy’s XC-100
is a 200-megawatt thermal,
80-megawatt electric reactor,
with a standard deployment likely
Some of these
novel reactors may
be located within
new industrial
installations, or
may even be
relocated to
different sites
over time
