We are pleased to announce the successful development of Holtec’s Green Boiler technology, which can be deployed to repurpose the existing coal-fired plants into on-demand clean energy generators. It is estimated that the reconfigured Green Boiler Plant will employ over 60% of the existing work force at the predecessor coal plant site, and more if the land vacated by the coal-related structures (boilers, coal and ash yards, smokestacks, etc.) is deployed to generate additional clean energy. A photovoltaic solar collector system or SMR-160 nuclear reactor are obvious candidate technologies for such expansion of power generation. The figure below illustrates the re-configuration from coal to green power generation.
The Green Boiler is essentially a large energy storage system that employs multiple engineered solids of high heat-of-fusion to claim inexpensive surplus power from the grid (i.e., when the supply exceeds demand). The Green Boiler will deliver steam at the same enthalpy and pressure as that used by the plant’s existing turbogenerator to generate power when needed.
The Green Boiler is a large capacity modular energy storage system with each module storing approximately 60 MWH of thermal energy. There is no limit on the number of modules that can be arrayed together at a site. The Green Boiler utilizes only readily available materials, which can be sourced domestically. The service life of the re-incarnated plant as a Green Boiler can be reasonably expected to be 40 years. The leakage rate of energy from the storage system can be as little as ½% per day.
“The Green Boiler is, in essence, a fungible energy storage system that can be customized to serve as the successor of any coal plant, providing steam in precisely the same thermodynamic state as that needed by the coal plant’s turbogenerator. All or a portion of the cycle steam can be converted into hydrogen or used as process steam for an industrial plant. There are multiple opportunities to diversify the re-configured plant to serve as the center of the local economy’s ecosystem,” says Holtec’s CEO and CTO, Dr. Kris Singh.
Discussions are underway with prospective coal-fired plant owners to build the first Green Boiler facility.
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