Impact of Firebrick Resistance-Heated Energy Storage (FIRES) on Electricity Prices in a Nuclear Renewable Grid

Conference · Sun Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 2015

OSTI ID:1484359

Stack, Daniel C. ^[1]; Forsberg, Charles ^[1]

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1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Electricity markets are changing with the addition of wind and solar. Large-scale wind or solar will drive down the price of electricity at times of high wind or solar output to near zero. This revenue effect provides the economic limit for deployment of wind or solar but is also bad on the economics of base-load nuclear power plants. The historical proposed solution to revenue collapse has been electricity storage—from pumped hydro to batteries. However, such devices are expensive. The alternative is conversion of low-price electricity into high-temperature heat stored in very cheap firebrick. The energy is transferred from the electric sector to the industrial sector or (longer term) with an FHR with NACC into peak electricity. The net effect is to put a floor on the price of electricity equal to the price of natural gas or whatever fossil fuel is used by industry. That benefits solar, wind, base-load (LWR) nuclear, and the FHR with NACC. It also significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions from the industrial and utility sectors with efficient use of all electricity generating sources.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-05ID14517
• OSTI ID: 1484359
• Report Number(s): INL/CON-16-39031-Rev000
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
firebrick