| Popis: |
Electricity generation will need to reach net zero emissions globally in 2050. This will require an increase in share of renewable energy and the implementation of a controllable carbon-free base-load source. Nuclear fusion is a promising option to decarbonize base-load electricity production but its capital cost still doubles the one of technologically more mature alternatives such as large photovoltaic fields or off-shore wind installations. Within this framework, the retrofit of a dismissed power-plant could allow significant cost savings, thus facilitating the realization of a fusion electricity demonstrator. Among fusion reactors, stellarators are a valid alternative to tokamaks thanks to the higher blanket temperature and inherent continuous operation. In this scenario, we posit the challenge to use a nuclear fusion stellarator-based reactor to retrofit conventional power plants (PPs). Specifically, we select a nuclear fission plant in France and a supercritical coal fired site in Italy, by constructing 4 different retrofit scenarios as a function of the re-used components. We compare each option with a greenfield and optimized plant with the same reactor thermal power. through a thermodynamic, economic, and investment analysis.The results proves significant savings by retrofitting an existing plant, with a CapEx reduction up to 50% compared to the greenfield plants. Specifically, the most convenient retrofit strategy is to select a site that already implements cutting edge thermodynamic parameters while reusing the most existing systems (i.e. buildings, steam cycle, electricity generation, and heat rejection). This is the case of the 2 x 660 MWe supercritical coal-fired plant in Italy. Therein, the LCOEs are 39 $/MWh and 51 $/MWh, calculated with an interest rate of 2.7% and 6%, respectively, and compare with the conventional energy technologies. Moreover, such costs are competitive in the current European energy markets and yield significant net present values at the plant end of life. |
