1. Construction begins on advanced fuel project

 

Nuclear company X-energy broke ground on their newest project: the first commercial-scale advanced nuclear fuel facility in America. 

The TRISO-X Fuel Fabrication Facility (TF3) will produce X-energy’s version of tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) particle fuel, TRISO-X, an advanced and safe nuclear fuel that can withstand high temperatures without melting.

• TF3 is being built in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, will create more than 400 jobs, and will attract approximately $300 million in investments.
• The facility is expected to be commissioned and operational in 2025.

What’s clear: With a new generation of American advanced reactor designs comes the need for a new generation of safe and reliable advanced nuclear fuels made in the U.S.
 

2. New carbon capture planned in Louisiana…

  

ExxonMobil is partnering with ammonia manufacturer CF Industries on a new carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in Donaldsonville, Louisiana.

• CF Industries plans to capture its carbon emissions at their new ammonia manufacturing facility.
• ExxonMobil will transport the captured emissions from the ammonia plant to a planned 125,000 acre sequestration site in Vermilion Parish, LA.
• The project will capture and permanently store up to 2 million metric tons of CO2 per year when complete, with construction beginning in early 2025.

What’s clear: Innovative carbon capture technologies are continually being developed, but we can only capture and reduce carbon emissions as fast as we can permit the projects.
 

3. …and in Nebraska

 

In other carbon capture news, developer Carbon America has announced plans to build a new project in Bridgeport, Nebraska, which will be the state’s first CCS facility.

• Carbon America plans to capture and store emissions from the Bridgeport Ethanol plant, diverting them via pipeline to an underground storage site near the plant.
• The Bridgeport facility is Carbon America’s third CCS project this year connected to an ethanol facility.
• Expected to begin operation in 2024, the Bridgeport CCS project will capture 175,000 tons of carbon per year – equivalent to 95% of the ethanol plant’s fermentation process emissions.

What’s clear: Nebraska is the nation’s second largest ethanol producer. CCS projects that reduce production-related carbon emissions will further increase the state’s competitiveness in the market.
 

4. Podcast: modernize permitting to build cleaner, faster

 

Cumbersome permitting processes make it difficult to build new energy projects, and we need a vast amount of new and expanded electrical power transmission and distribution infrastructure to carry the energy needed in our increasingly electrified country.

Nautilus Data Technologies Chairman and ClearPath advisor Jim Connaughton and Vice President and Johnson Controls Chief Sustainability and External Relations Officer Katie McGinty discussed the need for permitting reform on Columbia University’s Energy Exchange podcast.

Plug in: Connaughton and McGinty also co-authored an Aspen Institute report, Building Cleaner, Faster, on modernizing energy project permitting processes.
 

5. ClearPath is hiring!

 

Interested in a career in the clean energy space? ClearPath is expanding our Policy team and hiring a Program Director for the electricity sector!

• This role will focus on energy storage, geothermal, and hydropower, and will support development of ClearPath’s policy focus on transmission and electricity markets.

Plug in: Apply for the Program Director role and other exciting positions in Policy and Government Affairs on our Careers page.
 

6. ICYMI

• The Department of Energy issued a Notice of Intent to launch a $32 million front-end engineering design study program on domestic critical minerals supply chains authorized in the bipartisan infrastructure law.
• Support for nuclear energy continues to grow as investment management company Brookfield purchases energy manufacturer Westinghouse.
• Hy24, a joint venture between investment firms FiveT Hydrogen and Ardian, is investing 2 billion euros ($1.94 billion USD) in clean hydrogen infrastructure.
• The Southeast Energy Exchange Market, launching November 9, is a first-of-its kind electricity trading program that will allow power produced by renewables to be bought and sold between participating utilities.