Thread by @JacobASchwartz

Hi #APSDPP22, @USFusionEnergy, and #energytwitter, I'm happy to announce a new preprint, by me, @wilson_ricks, Egemen Kolemen, and @JesseJenkins on the value of fusion energy for a decarbonized United States electric grid. Read it at arxiv.org/abs/2209.09373 .

We've also written a summary Research Digest, which is available at control.princeton.edu/wp-content/upl… .

Our work sets costs targets for fusion reactors with a range of operational parameters to be useful on the US electric grid. While our study explicitly models pulsed tokamaks, it should be applicable to a wide range of devices.

We studied cost targets for fusion in three main future scenarios, representing a decarbonized US Eastern Interconnection grid in 2050. In order to reach 100 GW of capacity penetration, fusion plants require capital costs of under $3/W to under $7.2/W.

The cost target depends on the variable operational cost of the plant:

and on the costs of competitor resources.

We also studied the impact of integrated thermal storage systems, which would allow a plant to shift power generation to the times of day when it is most needed. We found that these add to the value of the core by up to $0.7/W.

On the energy system scale, we found that fusion would need to compete directly with fission, if it is available - they are both firm resources with high capital costs and low variable costs.

In our model, fusion plants are run most of the time during the year, only decreasing their power output during days in spring and fall when loads are low solar is plentiful. Plants with thermal storage can use solar power to generate heat during the day & discharge it at night.

This is the first study into the the value of fusion that includes detailed operational constraints. There is plenty more work to be done in this space!

For those at #APSDPP I'll be around till early Friday and happy to talk.