pwr_october-2023 - 13

GLOBAL MONITOR
tance of securing financial support for
nuclear power projects. " Nuclear energy
in general-and SMRs in particular-is
generating lots of excitement among
companies and utilities. We see a natural
partnership between the IAEA and industry
in these areas, " he said.
-Darrell Proctor is a senior associate
editor for POWER.
3.
There is growing global interest in GE
Hitachi Nuclear Energy's (GEH's) BWRX-300
small modular reactor (SMR) design. GEH
said it has memoranda of understanding or
other agreements in place with companies
in Canada, Poland, UK, U.S., and Sweden,
among others. Courtesy: GEH
" Generally, private investors are interested
only if there is significant government
support. There could be a possibility of
vendor financing for part of the cost, and
perhaps support from the export credit
agency in the vendor country. "
Wharton said several factors could impact
Sweden's timeline to build new reactors.
He told POWER, " The industrial
capabilities of Sweden are highly developed,
but their regulator SSM [Swedish
Radiation Safety Authority] does not have
a lot of staff for full reviews of licenses.
The job market for nuclear-experienced
engineers in Sweden has also been
relatively flat for multiple decades, so I'd
expect a 10-year horizon with human resources
being the main limiting factor to
get up and running. "
Holcombe agreed, saying, " I am not
aware of any conditions in Sweden that
would lead to an expectation of a different
timeline for new reactors as compared to
other Western countries, so the timeline
could be similar to other countries deploying
western-designed reactors. "
Said Grae: " Utilizing the same team to
deploy a similar plant would most likely
give greater assurance as to the timeline.
Commercial operation within 10 years
could be reasonable, with construction
time of five years if the reactor vendor
and EPC [engineering, procurement, and
construction] firm have deployed a similar
unit recently. "
Grossi, in his recent meeting with
Swedish officials including SSM Director
General Michael Knochenhauer, said the
IAEA's new Nuclear Harmonization and
Standardization Initiative (NHSI)-a program
designed to enhance harmonization
of regulatory activities and standardize
industrial approaches-would encourage
new reactor designs, particularly
for SMRs. Grossi said the IAEA recently
conducted two nuclear safety review missions
in Sweden, and he noted the imporOctober
2023 | POWER
POWER Digest
Coal-Fired Plants Serving EV Battery
Makers Could Get Special Financing.
Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (OJK), which
supervises and regulates financial services
for Indonesia, in early September said
it is considering making coal-fired power
plants that supply electricity to electric vehicle
(EV) battery manufacturers eligible
for green financing. OJK chief Mahendra
Siregar said the country's " green taxonomy, "
a program that defines investments
that can be considered environmentally
friendly, is being revised to include financial
support for early retirement of coalfired
power plants. That revision would
match the taxonomy of the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a
political and economic union of 10 member
states in Southeast Asia. As part of
that revision, Siregar said OJK would consider
enabling loans to coal-fired power
plants used by industries to make what
are considered sustainable products. That
would include the manufacture of batteries
for EVs. Siregar said, " In the end, we
need to see the whole result, the end
product of the whole supply chain, " as he
explained why financial support for coalfired
facilities could warrant consideration
as environmentally sound. Indonesian
banks continue to finance fossil fuel-related
projects, even as other global banks
have stopped funding coal-fired power
plants. Indonesia is the world's leading
exporter of coal. The country has pledged
to reach net-zero carbon emissions by
2060, and has said it will increase power
generation from renewable resources.
Large ESS Now Operating in Australia.
Technology group Wärtsilä has completed
construction at the Torrens Island
Grid Scale battery energy storage system
(ESS) project with AGL Energy Limited,
one of Australia's leading integrated energy
companies. The 250-MW/250-MWh
ESS installed at Torrens Island in South
Australia is the second-largest operational
battery in the country. The system will
serve electricity customers in southern
Australia. " Wärtsilä is partnering with
AGL to help balance intermittency of
renewables and provide flexible energy
www.powermag.com
capacity, while reducing their operational
and lifetime costs, " said Andrew
Tang, vice president of Energy Storage
and Optimization at Wärtsilä. " This landmark
project is helping Australia take a
major step towards a 100% renewable
grid and its net-zero emissions target. "
The Torrens Island system will operate
in grid-following mode, and will be able
to transition to grid-forming mode-virtual
synchronous generation, or VSG-
later. Officials said the ability to function
in VSG mode will enable fast response
times and help future-proof the Torrens
Island facility. The ESS will use Wärtsilä's
advanced GEMS Power Plant Controller.
The Torrens Island ESS is the latest of
Wärtsilä's projects in Australia. The company
has previously supplied a 211-MW
balancing power plant-the Barker Inlet
Power Station-for AGL. That facility also
is on Torrens Island. The company also is
supplying a 460-MW ESS in partnership
with Origin at the Eraring Power Station
in New South Wales.
Construction Begins on Major North
Sea Wind Farm. Construction is underway
on RWE's 1.4-GW Sofia offshore
wind farm in the North Sea. The company
in early September said Sofia, expected
to come online in 2026, is part
of the massive Dogger Bank wind farm
project that when complete will have
4.8 GW of
generation
capacity. The
Leonardo da Vinci, a 170-meter-long
shipping vessel built by Prysmian, has
begun laying the first sections of highvoltage
direct-current (HVDC) export
cables. The cables will move electricity
from the wind farm to the UK. One end
of each of the first two sections of subsea
cable is pulled underwater from the
Leonardo da Vinci through cable ducts
that were installed earlier this year (installation
of two remaining 90-kilometer
(km) sections of marine export cable is
planned for 2024). RWE said the Sofia
wind farm represents an investment of
about $3.8 billion. The company said Sofia
is the company's largest renewable
energy construction project to date, and
its furthest-from-shore offshore wind
installation. The wind farm on Dogger
Bank, located 195 km (121 miles) from
the nearest point on the UK's northeast
coast, will send its electricity to a facility
in Redcar, Teesside-a distance of
220 km (137 miles). The Sofia farm will
feature 100 Siemens Gamesa 14-MW
offshore wind turbines, and 44 of the turbines
will have recyclable blades. ■
-Darrell Proctor is a senior associate
editor for POWER.
13
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PWR_ October-2023

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