Future Cleantech Architects’ new report analyzes the case for why there is great value in developing and deploying complementary clean firm power technologies alongside variable renewables and other flexibility options. It also explains and discusses several examples of clean firm power technologies and the traditional and new approaches within, highlighting some of the gaps that must be closed to make those technologies competitive and complementary in markets becoming more and more dominated by renewables.
Europe’s electricity system stands today at the confluence of multiple potent trends: the drive to decarbonize for climate reasons, the pressing need to jettison fossil fuel dependence for energy security and geopolitical concerns, the need to unlock lower electricity prices for economic and industrial competitiveness, and rising demand due to electrification and new loads such as data centers. All of these mean that Europe’s supply of clean electricity must increase substantially for the years and decades to come. Every electron counts, but not all electrons are equal: A “firm” one is more valuable than intermittent power. Clean firm power designates a class of power generation technologies that deliver clean electricity in a controllable way, whether as baseload or dispatchably. It is part of a portfolio of flexibility tools working together to complement the massive deployment of variable wind and solar, and as such they are indispensable to reaching an economically optimal, fully decarbonized electricity grid, which is itself the cornerstone of economy-wide decarbonization. With clean firm power, Europe has significant techno-economic potential to produce many more “firm” electrons.
- Hydropower serves as an essential existing pillar of flexibility, and while its expansion in Europe is geographically limited, its value should be preserved and extended through modernization and digitalization of existing fleets.
- Nuclear power is historically proven to provide reliable, low-carbon energy but is struggling in Europe today. If it is to survive beyond the lifetime extension of existing plants, its future depends on moving past the era of bespoke, isolated projects and returning to fleet-scale programs, whether with conventional or small modular reactors.
- Next-generation geothermal represents an untapped frontier with the technical potential to supply Europe’s electricity demand many times over. By leveraging the drilling expertise of the oil and gas industry, geothermal can transition from a niche hydrothermal resource to a widespread one.
- For all clean firm power technologies, moving from baseload to dispatchable operation where possible is important to physically and economically complement variable renewable output. Other revenue streams such as providing heat directly rather than electricity also represent promising paths to market.
Yet despite this systemic value, clean firm power deployment will not happen in the market without more supportive public policy. This is normal; after all, batteries and renewables are thriving today in large part thanks to earlier government support. Crucially, this support needs to be multifaceted to address a wide range of obstacles: from derisking investment (e.g. exploration guarantees for geothermal, low interest rates for nuclear) for these technologies with high capital expenditure, to streamlining the regulatory process to accelerate projects.
On the pathway to deployment and tangible impact, scale matters considerably; in more colloquial terms, for clean firm power to be worth it, Europe must “go big or go home.” The more Europe coordinates deployment of clean firm power, the easier it will be to reach a critical mass of projects that can sustain supply chains and lower costs over time. This does not mean that clean firm power should aspire to supply the majority of Europe’s electricity and replace wind and solar, but rather that in order to complement these effectively, clean firm power cannot be reduced to a fragmented set of piecemeal projects. The oil crises of the 1970s spurred France and Sweden to achieve energy independence by building whole fleets of clean power generation, not one-off projects in isolation; today, Europe faces a challenge of even greater magnitude, and its ambition should rise to the occasion.