Industrial Decarbonization
Building the low-carbon Industrial Sector of the Future
In order to address climate change, we are at a point where we must rapidly decarbonize some of our most challenging industries. Steps companies and countries take to decarbonize include:
Reducing energy consumption and usage through energy efficiency and smart grid improvements.
Using clean energy instead of fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal)
Replacing fossil fuel transportation with electric vehicles.
The U.S. Department of Energy has designed an Industrial Decarbonization roadmap, which identifies pathways to reduce industrial emissions through manufacturing. Industry represents 30% of U.S. primary energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, or 1360 million metric tonnes of CO2 (2020). The Industrial Decarbonization Roadmap focuses on five of the highest CO2-emitting industries where industrial decarbonization technologies can have the greatest impact across the nation: petroleum refining, chemicals, iron and steel, cement, and food and beverage. These industries represent approximately 51% of energy-related CO2 emissions in the U.S. industrial sector and 15% of U.S. economywide total CO2 emissions.
This important investment to clean up steel, aluminum, and other heavy emissions industries goes hand-in-hand with other climate-friendly policy measures.
Sustainable Aluminum
Zero-carbon aluminum will be essential to electric vehicles, solar panels, transmission lines, and countless other tools of the clean energy economy. It’s also critical for national security that we have control over our supply chains.
Working with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstration Program (OCED), Century Aluminum has singled out northeastern Kentucky as its preferred site for a new aluminum smelter that would bring about 1,000 permanent jobs to an Appalachian region hard hit by the loss of coal and steel production. The project has the potential to become the largest investment on record in eastern Kentucky.
This new primary aluminum smelter will rely on green production methods and carbon-free electricity, substantially reducing emissions compared to traditional smelters reliant on fossil fuel-based energy. Century’s greenfield facility, when built, will be the first new primary aluminum facility in the United States since 1980.
Aluminum is facing increased scrutiny due to its energy-intensive production and refinement processes that are said to contribute significantly to global carbon emissions.
Green primary aluminum is in increasing demand, and, as a result, aluminum products branded as “low-carbon” or “green” are starting to charge a premium price.
According to the International Aluminum Institute, the power supply mix of aluminum production is shifting. While 50% of the world’s aluminum is still made using coal power, 39% is now made using hydropower.
Steel
The history of nuclear legislation in Kentucky has been limited but has become more active in the past few years as lawmakers have considered new technologies. H.B. 559 (enacted, 2012) allowed for the construction of facilities that use certain nuclear technologies, so long as electricity was not the primary output, but the state’s moratorium on the building of new nuclear facilities to generate electricity remained in place. During that same session, S.B. 89 (failed) would have removed the state’s moratorium on the construction of new nuclear power facilities, but would have required facilities to have a plan for storage, and H.B. 103 (failed) would have allowed for construction of a nuclear power facility on or within 50 miles of a site previously used for the manufacture of nuclear products.
During the 2017 legislative session, the General Assembly passed Senate Bill 11 (Carroll), “An Act Relating to Nuclear Power” which repealed KRS 278.605 relating to the construction of nuclear power facilities among its provisions. It also prohibited the construction of low-level nuclear waste disposal sites in Kentucky except as provided in KRS 211.852.
During the 2022 General Assembly, Senator Carroll filed Senate Concurrent Resolution 171, requesting the Legislative Research Commission to examine funding sources and research institutions capable of conducting a feasibility study of advanced nuclear energy technology for electric power generation in the Commonwealth. The resolution was adopted in the Senate but not the House.
For the 2023 session, lawmakers passed, and the Governor has signed, Senate Joint Resolution 79, calling for the formation of the Nuclear Energy Development Working Group to identify barriers in place to the deployment of nuclear power generation, develop recommendations for a permanent nuclear energy commission, consult with impacted stakeholders on what the role of the permanent nuclear energy commission should be. KCC is one of over twenty members within this working group.
Energy and Environment Cabinet has been researching the latest technology on Advanced Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). Whether or not this research will lead to an expansion of this technology in Kentucky remains to be seen.
Cement
U.S. nuclear electricity generation capacity peaked in 2012 at about 102,000 MW when there were 104 operating nuclear reactors. At the end of 2021, there were 93 operating reactors with a combined generation capacity of about 95,492 MW.
The newest reactor to enter service, Watts Bar Unit 2, came online in 2016—the first reactor to come online since 1996 when the Watts Bar Unit 1 came online. According to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission as of November 2021, there were 23 shut down commercial nuclear power reactors at 19 sites in various stages of decommissioning.
The two new reactors that are now under construction—Vogtle Units 3 and 4—in Georgia are expected to come online before 2023.
U.S. Energy Information Administration
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
World Nuclear Association
Other/Legislative:
What About Nuclear Fusion?
In December of 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a “breakthrough” in nuclear fusion research that would “pave the way for advancements in national defense and the future of clean power.” See DOE, press release here. This is the first time that a fusion reaction has generated “net energy.”
Advocacy allies at the nonprofit NIRS (Nuclear Information and Resource Service) made the following statement upon the release of the USDOE announcement on the commercial and environmental prospects of this technology:
“…it would take many more massive engineering breakthroughs to reach the capability where an actual fusion power plant might be designed. After 70 years and tens of billions of dollars spent, today’s reported achievement is a miniscule step towards viable fusion technology. Nuclear fusion remains a futuristic fantasy that has no role in the urgent, immediate need for climate solutions that are affordable, just, scalable, and most importantly, readily available.
So, should we keep investing in nuclear fusion research? No.
If solving climate change is the most urgent priority of US energy policy, nuclear fusion research is a waste of time and resources. In addition to being nowhere near feasibility, nuclear fusion is not the clean, just energy technology it has been made out to be….” (Full NIRS statement here).
