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Spotted: The Paris Agreement states that emissions need to be reduced by 45 per cent by 2030 and reach Net Zero by 2050 in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Although many now consider that this target is beyond reach, it is still possible to stall warming at 2 degrees Celsius. One key to reaching this is to eliminate the use of fossil fuels as soon as possible, but current industry and deployment models for advanced heat sources cannot deliver fast enough or at the scale required. Startup TerraPraxis is aiming to change this.

The company’s core offer is the design of decarbonisation strategies. These aim to accelerate the transition away from coal, develop clean synthetic fuels, and educate people on the possibility of nuclear as a climate solution, while de-risking decarbonisation through portfolios of solutions for different sites. The company has also developed ‘Transforming Modeling’, a data book to support global modelling.

Ahead of COP27 the company announced that joining these programmes is a new application, known as Evaluate, that allows coal plant owners and investors around the world to assess coal plants for their best options to convert to emissions-free sources. The free application provides owners with an initial breakdown of estimated costs and a proposed schedule for decarbonising their existing coal plants.

According to Eric Ingersoll, TerraPraxis co-founder and managing partner, “Repurposing existing coal and gas plants with advanced nuclear technologies creates new opportunities to leverage existing infrastructure, transmission lines, industry knowledge, workforces, capital, and supply chains to support decarbonisation of the global economy at speed and scale.”

Accelerating energy decarbonisation is a key part of the drive to net zero and Springwise has spotted many innovations contributing to this. These include the use of ultra-deep geothermal energy and transforming old mines into green energy generators.

Written By: Lisa Magloff