Assessment of Nuclear Renewable Hybrid Energy System (NR-HES): Technical-Economic Approach

Abstract

The present paper presents a technical-economic analysis of a nuclear renewable hybrid energy system (NR-HES) case study for given electricity and residential heat demand profiles of a typical community in Canada. The NR-HES is composed of a small modular nuclear reactor (SMR), a concentrated solar tower (CST) and a thermal energy storage (TES) system. Three different thermal storage fluids are examined. A transient thermodynamic mathematical model is developed in order to determine the overall configuration, performance and operation strategy. Also, a detailed economic analysis is conducted to estimate the annual revenue and profit generated by the TES system. Based on the current case study in terms of demand profiles, the results revealed that Hitec XL salt is the most economical thermal storage fluid for the studied NR-HES with economic profit and round-trip storage efficiency of 336,000 CAD/year and 97%, respectively.