Research Publications

Hard to decarbonize industrial heat processes provide a niche for early deployment of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). We quantify the economic viability of SMRs providing heat to industrial processes and selling electricity to wholesale power markets. We use a profit maximizing optimization model that controls hourly heat and power output by the SMR. By running this model over multiple regions within the US, and across multiple years of electricity markets, we are able to quantify the feasible deployment of SMR modules within these contexts. We find that SMRs can economically serve a substantial amount of thermal demands when compared to existing fuels and the inclusion of wholesale power sales provides a valuable revenue source.