Constellation CEO Joe Dominguez Lays Out Vision for Clean Energy Transition
June 21 2022 - 2:33PM
Business Wire
Pairing zero-carbon nuclear energy with new
technologies offers path to solving the climate crisis while
maintaining energy security and grid reliability
In an address to energy and climate leaders today, Constellation
CEO Joe Dominguez said nuclear energy will play a central role in
accelerating the transition to a clean-energy economy by providing
a foundation of secure, carbon-free energy to the grid and enabling
new technologies, such as clean hydrogen to power
difficult-to-decarbonize industries and direct air capture (DAC)
systems, which remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Nuclear
energy’s unique ability to provide reliable, 24/7 clean energy also
is critical to enhancing our nation’s energy security and grid
reliability as global energy markets grapple with the devastating
war in Ukraine and other challenges, he said.
“Concern in recent years about the future of nuclear energy has
been replaced with a growing consensus among climate leaders and
policymakers that maintaining and extending the life of our
zero-carbon nuclear fleet is critical to solving the climate crisis
and protecting our nation’s energy security,” Dominguez said. “We
have begun to transition our nuclear sites into versatile clean
energy centers that not only generate emissions-free power, but
also bring together new technologies that help decarbonize the
entire U.S. economy.”
The comments were part of a keynote address to participants in
the Nuclear Energy Institute’s annual Nuclear Energy Assembly,
which gathers climate leaders, energy industry professionals,
policymakers and innovators to discuss key issues affecting the
industry. The event was held at the Grand Hyatt Washington.
Constellation, the nation’s largest producer of carbon-free
energy, launched as a standalone company in February with a
nation-leading pledge to deliver 95 percent carbon-free electricity
by 2030 and 100 percent by 2040. No other large power producer has
made a pledge to reduce emissions to zero, without offsets, by that
date. The company currently produces 10 percent of all clean energy
on the grid in the U.S. with its zero-carbon fleet of nuclear,
solar, wind and hydro power plants.
Constellation is pursuing multiple technologies to help
customers lower emissions. The company received a U.S. Department
of Energy (DOE) grant to test the benefits of using nuclear energy
to produce hydrogen at its Nine Mile Nuclear Station on Oswego,
N.Y. The company is installing a proton exchange membrane (PEM)
electrolyzer that will separate the hydrogen and oxygen molecules
in water, resulting in carbon-free hydrogen. Sustainable fuels and
other products produced with hydrogen hold the key to decarbonizing
industries and processes that defy easy climate solutions, such as
long-haul shipping, agriculture, steelmaking and aviation, among
others. Constellation is seeking to expand hydrogen production to
other plants in its fleet as part of a broader DOE effort to
develop the hydrogen economy, and is exploring ways to reduce
emissions at its fossil plants by blending clean hydrogen with
natural gas.
The company received a separate DOE grant in April to explore
the potential for direct air capture technology at the company’s
Byron nuclear plant in Northern Illinois. While nuclear plants
produce no carbon emissions, direct air capture technology captures
carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere, a possible
next-generation technology to combat the climate crisis. The
technology will leverage the plant’s 495-foot-tall hyberbolic
cooling towers. A special solution would be added to water flowing
through the facility’s main condenser on the non-nuclear side of
the plant. After traveling through the condenser, the water would
travel out to the cooling towers, where carbon dioxide in the air
will attach itself to the water solution and become captured and
sequestered for later use, potentially in industrial processes that
will have net zero emissions, ranging from creating sustainable
aviation fuel to producing carbonation for the beverage
industry.
Among its other climate initiatives, Constellation has partnered
with Microsoft on the development of a 24/7/365 carbon-free energy
matching technology that will help customers achieve true zero
emissions, as opposed to the current practice of annualizing
renewable energy certificates and credits. The product will match a
customer’s energy needs with local, carbon-free energy sources on
an hour-by-hour basis. As part of the agreement, Microsoft will
create software that gives customers a transparent and
independently verified view of their sustainability efforts.
Video of Dominguez’s remarks can be found here.
About Constellation
Constellation Energy Corporation (Nasdaq: CEG) is the nation’s
largest producer of clean, carbon-free energy and a leading
supplier of energy products and services to millions of homes,
institutional customers, the public sector, community aggregations
and businesses, including three fourths of Fortune 100 companies. A
Fortune 200 company headquartered in Baltimore, our fleet of
nuclear, hydro, wind and solar generation facilities powers more
than 20 million homes, providing 10 percent of all carbon-free
energy on the grid in the U.S. Our fleet is helping to accelerate
the nation’s transition to clean energy with more than 32,400
megawatts of capacity and annual output that is nearly 90 percent
carbon-free. We have set a goal to achieve 100 percent carbon-free
power generation by 2040 by leveraging innovative technology and
enhancing our diverse mix of hydro, wind and solar resources paired
with the nation’s largest nuclear fleet. Follow Constellation on
Twitter @ConstellationEG.
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Paul Adams Corporate Communications 410-470-4167
paul.adams@constellation.com
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