Conceptual design and preliminary analysis of a hybrid wind-nuclear power system for on-demand power supply

ABSTRACT

China prioritizes clean energy for power generation in response to climate change and air pollution. By the end of 2021, the installed capacity of wind power has reached 328.48 GW, accounting for 13.8% of China’s total installed capacity of 2376.92 GW. However, wind power is inherently unstable and its output depends on resources, which poses challenges for the national grid. Wind curtailment is often encountered when electricity production is plentiful. The main objective of this work is to develop a clean energy generation system for on-demand power supply to improve the utilization of wind resources. The LBE reactor is also a clean energy source with flexible power regulation that helps mitigate the impact of wind variability. Therefore, a hybrid wind-nuclear power system (HWNPS) is proposed. This paper demonstrates the technical feasibility of the LBE reactor and conducts a preliminary analysis of the economics of the HWNPS. The additional cost of HWNPS due to power regulation is about $ 9.04/MWh, which has potential for research and development.

KEYWORDS:

• Clean energy
• Wind power
• Nuclear power
• Hybrid energy system
• LBE reactor

Nomenclature

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Grant/Award Number: 51901224.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/15567036.2022.2091691

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [51901224].