1. Advanced nuclear coming to Wyoming
ClearPath Chief Executive Officer Rich Powell moderated a panel, Nuclear Power: Coming to a Neighborhood Near You?, at the Aspen Ideas Festival this week.
- The panel featured Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon and TerraPower CEO Chris Levesque and highlighted the geopolitical effects of an advanced nuclear power plant coming to Wyoming.
What’s clear: Nuclear power is a reliable source of clean energy and can provide high paying jobs in communities that are facing an energy transition like some in Wyoming.
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2. Plans for largest battery factory in the world
U.S.-based Rondo Energy announced a partnership with Siam Cement Group to expand its heat battery factory in Thailand.
- The facility currently produces 2.4 GWh of industrial heat batteries and its planned expansion to a 90 GWh capacity will make it the largest battery factory in the world.
- This expansion will support a wide range of industries around the world including mining, metals, and food production.
What’s clear: Heat batteries like this “brick toaster” are important for decarbonizing the industrial sector. They transform intermittent wind and solar power using abundant and inexpensive materials into the on-demand, high-temperature and low-cost heat that industry requires. The 90GWh of planned capacity can reduce 12 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions from heavy industry annually.
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3. The power of the ocean
The ocean is a promising tool for carbon dioxide removal (CDR). It covers over 70% of the surface area of the planet, holds about 50 times more carbon than the atmosphere, and can store carbon for millennia at its deepest depths.
The ocean removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through two main ways:
- A natural chemical adjustment system: where the seawater absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and
- By photosynthesis of organisms, like seaweed, to remove carbon.
What’s clear: Ocean CDR innovations are in the early stages of research and development, with most innovations occurring in a laboratory setting and some companies conducting early field trials. These efforts are important, but in order to move from the lab to deployment, widespread field tests are necessary to understand and validate the effectiveness in a real ocean environment.
Plug in: Check out our latest Tech 101, entitled "Ocean CDR Permitting and Regulations 101" by Policy Associate Jasmine Yu.
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4. Western Governors highlight need for more permitting reform
At their 2023 annual meeting this week, the Western Governors' Association (WGA) released “The Heat Beneath Our Feet,” a report with recommendations to expand the use of geothermal energy in the West. Colorado Governor Jared Polis led the initiative as Chair of WGA.
What’s clear: The report includes recommendations to improve permitting timelines for geothermal energy projects and highlights the important role of federally funded demonstration projects in partnership with the private sector.
Plug in: ClearPath was proud to sponsor the report and join roundtables, site visits, and webinars to facilitate these important recommendations. Read the full report here.
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5. ClearPath visit to GE Hitachi Wilmington, NC facilities
Last week, five ClearPath team members visited GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy's site in Wilmington, NC to learn more about GE’s nuclear energy projects. The ClearPath team also got to tour GE Hitachi’s fuel fabrication and training facilities.
L to R: Brian Boggs, Niko McMurray, Jeremy Harrell, Natalie Houghtalen, Jay Faison, Rich Powell, Evan Dolley, Keith Longtin, Arthur Cotton
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6. ICYMI
- Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) wrote an op-ed in Newsweek titled, “Restoring America’s Nuclear Energy Leadership,” which highlighted his priority to unleash an all-of-the-above energy strategy through reforming and modernizing the U.S.’ nuclear regulatory structure to encourage the deployment of innovative new nuclear technologies.
- Project Tundra, a carbon capture and sequestration project in North Dakota, has gained three new developers – an exciting development as additional players with robust energy sector experience with financial stake in the game give even more confidence in project delivery.
- New Belgium Brewing announced plans to replace one of the four natural-gas-powered boilers at its facility in Fort Collins, CO with an electric version to produce industrial heat with reduced emissions. The electric boiler is designed by U.S. start-up AtmosZero.
- Last week, Boston Consulting Group signed a 5-year purchase agreement for 40,000 tons of direct air capture (DAC) carbon removal credits, generated by CarbonCapture Inc.’s Project Bison, a large DAC facility being developed in Wyoming.
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