DRAFT

nd
Proceedings of the 22 International Conference on Nuclear Engineering
ICONE22
July 7-11, 2014, Prague, Czech Republic

ICONE22-31014
ANTAGONISM OR SYMBIOSIS BETWEEN RENEWABLE ENERGY AND NUCLEAR
ENERGY?
Madalina Zamfir
RATEN - CITON
Bucharest, Romania

Viorel Serban
RATEN - CITON
Bucharest, Romania

Ana-Maria Andronache
RATEN - CITON
Bucharest, Romania

Marian Androne
RATEN - CITON
Bucharest, Romania

George Alexandru Ciocan

RATEN - CITON
Bucharest, Romania

Gabriela Lungescu
RATEN - CITON
Bucharest, Romania

Raluca Dinca
RATEN - CITON
Bucharest, Romania

Laura Elena Serban

SC SIGMA STAR SERVICE SRL
Bucharest, Romania

ABSTRACT
One of the biggest problems of humankind in the present is
reducing the greenhouse gases emissions. These accelerate
global warming, with negative effects of modifying climatic
phenomena. Electrical energy production is currently the
biggest CO2 polluter because is burning carbon based fuel in
thermoelectric power plants. These are the reasons why,
especially beginning with year 2000, an emphasis is put on the
production of electrical energy from renewable sources (wind,
solar, waves, small hydro, bio etc.). In the same time the
production of electrical energy from nuclear energy through
fission is encouraged by developing new safer NPPs, currently
reaching to GIII+ generation for thermal neutron reactors, in
spite of the negative effects of the Fukushima-Daiichi NPP
accident, produced by the Tohoku Sendai earthquake. Plus,
there are made great efforts to transition to fast neutron reactors.
Due to big unitary power and the functioning lifetime of an NPP
these have an important contribution to diminishing the
greenhouses gases emissions volume. Current technologies of
CO2 capture and its storage from classical thermal power plants
are expensive and arent safe and efficient enough. Renewable
energy, which should become leader in the production of
electrical energy, due to current technologies expensive and
inefficient - and of the impossibility of its storage is rather
disturbing and an important polluter for the electro-energetic

system. Current technology of converting nuclear energy into

electrical energy has a high degree of security. The energy
production is cheap and in large quantities, with low
possibilities of power variations, therefore imposes an NPP to
be exploited at the base of the load curve. Present politics of
promoting renewable energy through green certificates and
priority connection to the electro-energetic system conflicts
with classical suppliers of electrical energy and especially with
NPPs, which cannot vary their power according to the
randomness of the renewable energy production. In this paper
are presented new solutions to efficiently exploit renewable
energy and to store it through specific capacities in the new
power plant, ensuring in the same time the storage of exceeding
energy produced by NPPs in the day and night gaps of the load
curve. This way the current conflict is transformed into
symbiosis between nuclear energy and renewable energy.
INTRODUCTION
Rapidly increasing population and rising urbanization has put
massive pressure on energy and natural resources all over the
world pushing towards other sources of energy such as nuclear
and renewable energy.
The use of nuclear and renewable energy sources is being
increased day by day leads to more sustainable and clean

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energy, lower energy bills due to reducing dependency on oil

and electricity, and lower green house gases.
The EU has a binding target for 20% of its energy supply to
come from wind and other renewable sources by 2020 [1]. In
order to achieve this, more than one-third of the European
electrical demand would have to come from renewable.
Taking into account the contribution of nuclear energy in
electricity production then reduce emission of greenhouse gas is
high.
In Europe in 2012 the production of electricity from renewable
sources was 19% and from nuclear sources was 13% [2].
ELECTRIC POWER SYSTEM AND NON CARBON
ENERGY
It has to be a difference between the electricity production and
electricity use. This difference appears due to electricity losses
occurred in the transport and delivery lines of the electric power
system to which the manufacturers and consumers are
connected. There is always a conflict between the electricity
producers and the consumers because the electric energy
production is done with maximum efficiency and it is constantly
and consume of electricity is fluctuating. The use of electricity
has a high degree of fluctuation both during the day and during
one calendar year. Before the Nuclear Power Plants (NPP)
have been firstly built, the necessary electricity was produced in
thermoelectric units about 90% , in hydro-electric power
plants about 8 9 % and the rest being provided by dieselelectric power units.
This conflict was solved with the following actions:
- Construction of efficient thermo electrical power plants able
to vary electricity production in relatively large limits;
- Construction of hydro electrical power plants with large
storage capacity which can store the hydro-energy for a
relatively long period of time and can produce electricity when
is needed;
- The development of electric energy systems with high capacity
transport lines and small losses of electricity;
- Studying the load curve and forecasting it with high accuracy.
Through nuclear processes underlying the energy production,
the nuclear power plants can vary within large limits the
delivered electric power.
The conflict has been solved through several technical and
economical actions due to the fact that in one electric energy
system we can forecast with a high level of confidence the
electricity consumption so that the electricity production can be
well planned.
The load curve of the electric energy systems (where the
electricity consumption has a highly predictable level of
variation and the production is not randomized) can be very
well forecast using mathematical models. The forecast using
Time Series or Artificial Neural Networks methods has enabled
the nuclear power development (including high electric power
units up to 1000 1200 MW) and eliminated the difficult
problems related to the stability of the system.

Wind and solar farms protected by the law, enforce electroenergetic systems to take unconditionally the electricity produce
with renewable sources. This situation has generated big issues
related to the stability when electric energy systems are
operational.
The random connection and disconnection of a large amount of
electricity from the power supply system is in contradiction with
the operation necessity of a nuclear power plant to produce a
constant amount of energy.
If the NPP is shut down because of the power excess in the
supply system due to random renewable energy occurrence it
cannot be instantly turned on when the renewably energy is no
longer available. The NPP cannot be powered on immediately
because of the nuclear reactions known as iodine pit which
take place in the nuclear reactor after it was shut down and the
long technological processes which are very important to follow
when a high power nuclear plant is powered on.
For a better understanding of this phenomena related to the
conflict between the electricity producers from a system and the
best way to solve this conflict, lets take a closer look to a load
curve and to the way in which the necessary electric power from
a system can be managed.
LOAD CURVES
All consumers and units for production of electrical energy
connected to each other through transmission and distribution
networks make up the national power system (NPS). Because
electricity cannot be stored at a large scale within economic
advantageous conditions, between supply and demand there
must be a perfect balance, taking into account the energy losses
from the transport and distribution lines. Variation in electric
power P (t), depending on time, in an electric power system is
called a load curve (see Figure 1). [3]
Figure 1 Daily load curve for a complex consumer

Load curves are of particular importance in the energy sector

due to the fact that they contain full information about the

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dynamics of consumption and the electricity that has to be

produced.
To highlight the particularities of a load curve, it is split
horizontally and vertically in order to highlight areas of interest
in its dynamics:
Horizontal - delimitation of horizontal areas (Figure 2) [3] is
important in terms of how these areas of the load curve are
covered by the power plants:
Figure 2 Horizontal delimitation of load curves

carried out manoeuvres in installations without risk of loss of

stability.
The daily peak load represents the maximum power required by
the consumer, at least 1530 minutes during a day. Not to be
confused the load peak with the short duration power shock (a
few tens of seconds) that can occur when starting an electric
motor, etc.
The daily gap of loads represents the minimum power required
by the consumer, at least 1530 minutes during a day.
The energy consumed in one day Wzi corresponds to the area
between the load curves and coordinate axes P0 and 0t. It is
calculated by integrating the function P = P (t).
Figure 3 Vertical delimitation of load curves

basic are plants that operate at constant load (close to

nominal power) during a day; they must be very powerful to
produce energy at a price as low as possible; usually they are
nuclear or thermal coal-based power plants, rarely based on
methane gas;
semi-basic are plants with variable load over time,
producing energy at a higher price than the basic power plants;
these operate in general using gas or oil or are hydroelectric
power plants on water, with a small reservoir lake;
top/peak - are plants with quick start; they can produce energy
at a high price because during the load peak the demand
increased much compared to the technically limited offer, using
resources that are exhausted quickly; in this category belong
hydro power plants with reservoir lake, plants with gas turbines
or diesel engines.
Vertical this zoning of the load curve (Figure 3) [3] is
particularly useful to dispatchers, who must realize area specific
conditions:
in the morning peak area and evening area it must be
ensured an adequate reserve of power and it is desirable to
minimize the number of manoeuvres performed in order not to
unnecessarily disrupt the operation of the system;
in the daytime gap the demand is somewhat reduced, there
may be put out of operation certain hydroelectric plants to
ensure peak load coverage;
in the night-time gap can be planned the removal from
service of installations for repairs and minor revisions, can be

THE STABILITY OF THE ELECTRIC POWER SYSTEM

The discontinuity of the supplied electricity from wind and
solar renewable sources using current technology creates
difficulties over the operation of National Power System NPS.
Actual national legislation gives priority into the system to
electricity produce from renewable energy.
According to UE stipulation, Romania has to ensure a gradual
contribution of these energies of about 38% from the total
energy production by 2020.
According to the priorities assigned to renewable energy, it
follows that, whenever the wind blows or the sun is shining
other distributors (thermo, hydro, nuclear sources) shall be
removed from the system. When the renewables decrease other
producers shall be introduced in the NPS to restore the balance
between the consumers and producers taking into account the
electricity losses due to large power circulated through electric
lines. These random variations of electric power due to the
current technology to use the renewable energy in electricity
production generates additional pollution because the classical
power plants dont work in optimum power regime being forced
to balance the power that was take out from the system by
renewable energy producers. This is why wind or solar farms
can be included only in very powerful and extremely well
equipped integrated systems with electrical power plants for

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intervention that can overtake branching /disconnection of this

green energy.
It is estimated that the Romanian energy system would require
an investment of several billion euros to ensure the smooth
takeover of a significant amount of solar and wind power.
Investments not supported by investors in the wind power field,
which irrespective of their producer, will be taken in charge by
the consumers. The cost of green certificates, which is an
incentive to investors in wind power filed, but a burden for
consumers, which are forced to pay more money for the same
amount of consumed energy.
However, with the current technology to exploit renewable
energy (without storage) an integrated system can take only a
small amount of green energy.
For any amount of green energy which can be overtake by NPS
have to exist a corresponding classical power production units
core-buffer which can make the power adjustments for NPS.
Transelectrica which manages the electricity transport in NPS
suggests that in Romania could be easily taken over about 3,000
installed MWh, six times less than the total amount of approved
renewable energy projects.
Without conventional energy intervention units capable of
energy production to support the power variation from NPS due
to the alternative nature of green energy, energy security is
endangered by the current technology to exploit renewables.
But the extremely generous scheme for green energy in
Romania is likely to alienate any investor in conventional
energy for the construction of intervention power plants.
By the 2020 it is estimated that Romania will build wind farms
totalling 5000 MW, therefore by the year 2017 the energy billed
to population will be more expensive increasing by 30% if the
legislation continues to support the current technologies for
renewable energy exploitation. This technology has low
efficiency and generates serious problems to the actual
Romanian NPS.
This paper presents a new technology to efficiently exploit
renewable energy. This technology and related equipment
allows collection of two types of renewable energy and can
store the excess of energy and deliver it on demand to
consumers. The new renewable power plant can be used to
adjust the load curve. This paper presents a new type of
renewable power plant.
CURRENT STATE OF
NUCLEAR ENERGY

THE

RENEWABLE

AND

Since 1954 , when the first nuclear power plant was put in
operation at Obninsk Russia, until December, 31st, 2012 a
number of 427 Nuclear Power Plants were constructed having a
total installed power of 3640 GWe [4]. The chart from Figure 4
shows the nuclear power plants that have been constructed and
connected to the grid or are under construction since 1954 to
2012 [2].

Figure 4 Annual numbers of nuclear reactors that are

connected to the grid or under construction

Fast neutrons reactors nuclear power plants are hard to

introduce on the current market which is leading to the
accumulation of large quantities of spent fuel. Nuclear power
plants with thermic neutron reactor have reached GIII and
GIII+ generation. They have passive security system, digital
control, operational flexibility, high degree of combustion and
extended life span. The costs for new projects increased in the
last 10 years from the estimate of $ 1,000 / MW to $ 7,000 /
MW mainly due measures to ensure nuclear safety and seismic
qualification.
Since 2000, renewable energy (wind, solar, biomass, hydro
power under 10MW) compete for non-carbon energy market
place with nuclear power enjoying the support of states seeking
the involvement of private capital in the sector. Renewable
energies have outstanding dynamics during 2000 - 2012 as
shown in Table 1.
Table 1 - Newly installed renewable energy power during
2000-2012

Installed capacity
The
amount
of
electricity produced

Renewable energy
wind: 0 - 266 GWe
solar: 0 - 99 GWe
wind: 0 - 450 Twh
solar: 0 - 90 Twh

Table 2 - Installed capacity and energy produced from

renewables and nuclear in the year 2012

Installed capacity
The amount of
electricity produced

wind + solar
365 Gwe
540 Twh

Nuclear energy
364 Gwe
2.364 Twh

In the year 2012 the installed power using renewable energy

and nuclear power are practically equal, but electricity from
nuclear power is over 4 times higher than electricity from
renewable sources (solar and wind).
In 2012, renewable energy investments were over five times
higher than in nuclear power. $ 268 billion in renewable
energy, while in nuclear energy only $ 50 billion, although
production of electricity from renewable energy is much lower.

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Figure 5 presents the graph of annual investments in nuclear

and renewable energy from 2004 to 2012, and Figure 6 presents
the variation in installed solar, wind and nuclear energy between
2000 and 2012 [4].
These graphs show that, although the installed power of
renewable energy is 1GWe higher than the NPP, the energy
produced by them in the year 2012 is 4.4 times lower which
highlights the inefficiency of current technologies and
installations used to produce electricity from renewable sources.

Figure 7 - Capacity installed in various types of renewable

energy (2006 - 2011)

Figure 5 - Graph of annual investments in renewable energy

from 2004 to 2012

Figure 8 - Capacity installed in various types of renewable

energy (2006 - 2012)

Figure 6 - Power variation in installed capacity in solar, wind

and nuclear energy between 2000 and 2012

RENEWABLE ENERGY POWER

NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS

This inefficiency together with high specific investment

problems and issues in electro-energetic systems operation by
random input and output of a large electric power requires the
development of a new generation of power facilities for the
efficient exploitation of renewable energy and it is mandatory
that they include electricity storage.
Figure 7 and Figure 8 [5] presents installed capacity from
different types of renewable energy since 2006 to 2011 and that
from 2006 to 2012 and the resulting dynamics of the different
types of renewable energy.

PLANTS

AND

There are large amounts of renewable energy in the form of

solar radiation, air currents, river waters, waves, ocean currents,
tides, etc. If a fraction of 10-15% of this energy could be
converted into electricity and heat with an average efficiency of
15%, it would exceed the energy needs to be produced today for
the entire planet. Unfortunately, renewable energy is random
and currently can be converted into electricity only one that
exceeds a certain intensity. Its transformation into electrical
energy is achieved with low efficiency and the power
consumption cannot be correlated with energy production.
Current technologies for harnessing renewable energy do not
include neither its storage, if it exceeds the power necessary at
that moment, nor electricity production from the energy stored.
The main disadvantage of the efficient use of renewable energy
using current technology is that the electricity cannot be store.
Also, equipment and installations of renewable energy
collection have a relatively low efficiency and cannot transform
into electricity energies of low respectively high intensity. Due
to current policies encouraging the use of renewable energy,

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wind and solar parks are in conflict with classical electricity

producers and especially nuclear power plants that do not have
the ability to vary within wide limits the electric power
produced. For example, in Romania in Dobrogea area, the
installed wind power is about 50% higher than the installed
power in the two units of Cernavoda NPP but electricity
produced from wind is less than a third of the energy produced
by Cernavoda NPP. Wind energy currently produced in
Dobrogea region of Romania generates difficulties on NPS and
disturb the optimal operation of Cernavoda NPP generating
even accidental shutdown of the plant. This event occurred in
the year 2012 when in the region production of electricity from
wind power was high for a relatively short period of time.
The current generation of wind power plants and generally the
renewable energy plants, in addition to requiring large unitary
investments per MW installed, creates difficulties in operation.
Current policies supporting renewable energy through green
certificates lead to more expensive electricity which caused
many industrial activities in Romania to be shut down because
they are unprofitable because of the high price of electricity.
The paper proposes the development of a new generation of
power plants enabling efficient operation of two types of
renewable energy (that are usually complementary) that can
store the electricity produced in excess. These renewable power
plants can eliminate the disadvantages caused by the
randomness of renewable energy.

the load curve because starting and stopping the production of

electricity is achieved instantaneously. The SERB SWP can be
used as intervention power plant.
Building A is a sealed reinforced concrete, tower like type that
is both compressed air tank to store energy and support
structure for renewable energy collection equipment, namely
wind turbines, photovoltaic panels and thermal panels. The
reinforced concrete structure represents the support structure for
the air compression equipment and the equipment for electricity
production from compressed air and for the heat and electricity
from solar energy.
The A body has a cylindrical body with thick walls, convex
bottom and roof top and is provided inside with a lining, usually
of metal, which is the main reservoir of energy in the form of
compressed air. On the rooftop of the A body are mounted the
newly designed wind turbines NWT (New Wind Turbine), and
the technology chain for energy storage and reuse of the energy
stored when is needed.
On the outside of the main body A, channels are built on
vertical plane, evenly distributed and closed by photovoltaic
panels, transparent to the solar thermic radiation. , by means of
which the greenhouse and chimney effects occur with maximum
intensity. In these channels the greenhouse effect and chimney
effect is produced with high intensity. The closed channels with
sloping membrane collect the horizontal air currents from the
vertical walls of the building and direct those vertically toward
NWT mounted on the main body parapet.

WIND-SOLAR POWER PLANT SERB SWP TYPE WITH

STORAGE CAPACITY

Figure 9 SERB SWP power plant general view

SERB SWP [6] solar-wind power plant efficiently collects solar

and wind energy, including in urban areas, has the ability to
store energy in the form of pressure and heat energy and the
ability to produce electricity and heat on demand from the
energy stored, does not affect the environment and fit into the
traditional urban architecture.
SERB SWP power plant is a reinforced concrete building
consists of three bodies: main cylindrical body A, secondary
circular body B and auxiliary tower C. Wind energy is collected
with the newly developed wind turbines, NWT [7], which are
installed on the upper side of the main body A. Solar energy is
collected directly by solar and heat panels and indirectly by air
currents generated by the chimney effect and the greenhouse
effect. Energy storage is done using as storage technology the
compressed air and hot water. The energy stored can be used on
request, when is needed, as electric power or heat. Pressure
energy is converted into electricity by the discharge of
compressed air into specialized equipment in the first stage and
in the NWT in the second stage. Thermal energy can be used
for heating or power generation by producing chimney currents
(in the outer channels of bodies A and B) whose energy is
converted into electricity by NWT (see Figure 9).
SERB SWP power plants can be efficiently used to adjust the
load curve by consuming electricity in the night and day gaps
and to produce electricity in the evening and morning peaks of

Circular secondary body B is placed on the lower part of the

main body A. This consists of a basement and ground floor,
forming a rigid box along with the main body, in order to
provide the SERB SWP stability. Inside the secondary body B
is placed the heat water tank which store thermal energy
obtained from solar radiation. Water temperature uniformly
rises from bottom to top of the plant where reaches a maximum
120o. In the northern part of the main body there is the tower
auxiliary body C, where there are installed the auxiliary
equipment serving the SERB SWP, the batteries used to create
a buffer stock of small power electric energy used also for the
power plant supply services. These batteries achieved a
temporary storage buffer for low intensity electricity for

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restocking it in the main reservoir as pressure energy or in the

secondary reservoir as thermal energy. The three structural
elements, body A, B and C (the main body, the circular
secondary body and the tower auxiliary body) have a common
foundation between them. In the bottom of the vertical channel
from main body A and the sloped channel on the roof of the
body B are mounted heat exchange panels which collect heat
from the solar radiation and store it in the warm water of the
body B. These heat exchangers using the hot water from body B
are also used to generate the chimney effect in the vertical and
sloped channels afore mentioned. Power plant bodies are made
of reinforced concrete with granite aggregates that have a high
heating capacity to store the energy from solar radiation, being
of black colour outside in order to capture, with maximum
efficiency, the energy from the solar radiation which is not
already taken from the heat panels.
SERB SWP can be also coupled to other adjacent renewable
energy generating units, to store the excess of energy. Stored
energy shall be released on demand of the National Power
System or from the independent users of local urban
communities.
Collection of renewable energy, its storage and reuse, by means
of SERB SWP, are performed as follows:
Wind energy is collected by NWT installed at the upper side,
on the circular parapet of the main body and in the central area.
NWT turbines from the central area are mounted on a metal
structure, self-oriented, depending on the air currents direction.
NWT is newly developed and consists of a modular rotor with
blades, with gradual drive and response, and of a twin stator
made of fixed and mobile deflectors directing the air currents.
The mobile deflectors of NWT turbine control the air flow
acting on the rotor; therefore they are not to be stopped at high
velocities of the air currents.
Wind energy related to the vertical surface of the SERB SWP is
collected by redirecting the air currents towards the NWT by
means of sloped outdoor channels on B body and vertical
channels of the A body covered on sections by inclined panels.
Solar energy is directly collected through photovoltaic and
thermic panels mounted on A and B bodies is indirectly
collected as kinetic energy given by the air currents caused by
the chimney effect and greenhouse effect formed in the exterior
channels of the SERB SWP. During the day, the vertical walls
of the body A and the cone roof of body B captures and stores
large amounts of heat from solar radiation with an efficiency of
85-95%, which leads to increased temperature in the channels.
Apart of this energy is stored in the circular hot water tank of
the body B. Heating of walls and of the tapered covering
generates air currents in channels partially covered with sloped
photovoltaic panels known as chimney currents, of which
kinetic energy is converted into electric energy by means of
NWT turbines. Heating is also accelerated by the greenhouse
effect caused by the outside channels partially closed. Mirrors
can be placed near the power plant, in order to concentrate the

solar radiation on the power plant walls, and in particular on the

tapered covering. Efficiency of these turbines which can collect
chimney currents is of 35 - 40%. By means of this procedure,
solar energy is converted into electric energy with an average
efficiency of 31% - 38%, which is about 2 times higher than the
solar energy conversion into electric energy by means of regular
photovoltaic panels.
Energy storage is accomplished in the form of compressed air
inside the airtight container of the body A and as hot water in
the circular tank of the body B. Storage takes place at pressures
of 4 to 10 bar overpressure for air and a temperature up to
120 for water. Air compression is done with a set of
compressors depending on the renewable energy available. For
electric capacities of up to 2kW, the energy is stored within a
buffer tank of batteries, up to a capacity of 200kWh, afterwards
being transferred to the body A tank , as pressure energy, for
the actuation of the compressors, whether in parallel or not with
the presence of direct renewable energy. The thermal energy
collected by means of the thermal panels installed outside the A
body and on the upper part of B body is stored in the lower part
of the B body. The values of the temperature at which the
thermal energy is stored in the water tank of body B can vary
between 20 and 120 from the bottom to the top depending
on the intensity of solar radiation. The thermal energy may be
used directly to any desired temperature up to a temperature of
120 . Thermal energy can be generated from the additional
electricity produced by the plant or from the energy from the
day and night gaps of the load curve of NPS.
Electric energy generation from the pressure energy by
discharging the compressed air into the compressed air turbines,
up to a pressure between 0.1 0.2 bars, afterwards it is
discharged in cornice wind turbines, whether in parallel or not
with the presence of natural air currents caused by the chimney
effect and greenhouse effect.
If the energy storing tank has a diameter of 21 m and a height of
40 m, the electric energy generated from the stored pressure
energy is between 4 and 10MWh, depending on the compressed
air pressure. If the tank has a diameter of 40 m and the height of
60 m, the electric energy generated from the stored pressure
energy is between 23 and 58MWh.
Production of electricity from thermal energy is achieved
through chimney currents. They can be generated and forced to
ascend by the hot water taken from the body B of a certain
temperature (depending on the outside air temperature) and
circulated through the panels on the bodies A and B. Depending
on the power demand of the community served by the solarwind power plant, the unit capacity for the generation of electric
energy from the stored energy can be between 0.5 and 2MW,
providing a continuous operation time of SERB SWP, between
8 and 12 hours, only by means of the stored energy. An
operation time of up to 180 hours is expected for SERB SWP
power plant, taking into account the solar and wind renewable
energy potential, available in the area, as well. Given the fact
that SERB SWP can function as intervention plant to adjust the
load curve, the intensity and duration of the power delivered

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can be set according to need and not random as the current wind
turbines. In the day and night gaps of the load curve, the power
can be supplied from the NPS system for storing energy by
compressing air or increase the temperature of the water. In the
evening and morning peak, and also when it has to function as
intervention plant SERB SWP can produce electricity from the
energy pressure and/or from the stored thermal energy. SERB
SWP can be made in order to fully meet all the requirements of
electricity and heat of a community with or without connection
to the NPS. Due to its capacity to store and on demand produce
of electricity the power plant does not disrupt the NPS and can
be used efficiently to adjust the load curve and as an
intervention plant.
Considering that SERB SWP can be done in any location
including in urban areas, its efficiency is relatively high,
including in areas with low solar and wind potential, it has a
large energy storage capacity as pressure energy (compressed
air) or thermal energy (heat water), resulting that they represent
a viable solution to solve the conflict between renewable energy
and nuclear energy.
By building a relatively large number of SERB SWP (evenly
distributed in NPS but with a higher density in areas with high
wind and solar potential and in the vicinity of the largest
producers of electricity from non-renewable sources, including
nuclear power plants) or special floating power plants on the
rivers instead of a high power pumping hydro plant, most of the
difficulties related to the exploitation of renewable energy,
energy storage, energy loss through its transport via power lines
and the symbiosis with nuclear power plants would be solved.
In areas where there are other forms of renewable energy like
hydro, waves, marine currents, etc. can be constructed the
following type of plants [8, 9]:
- Floating hydroelectric solar-wind power plants that can
collect water courses of high flow and low speed without
making dams, which continuously collect hydro energy with
cylindrical high-flow turbine and random solar and wind energy
by photovoltaic panels and special wind turbines mounted on
the roof of the plant. The excess of energy is stored as pressure
energy as to SERB SWP.
- Floating solar-wind-waves power plants can collect wave
energy with active protection of shorelines without dam
construction using floating bodies which transmit the wave
movement to a shaft through one-way clutch or cylindrical highflow turbine driven by water flow to the rise and descent of the
wave through channels with one-way valves and solar and wind
energy through photovoltaic panels and wind turbines mounted
on the roof of the power plant. The excess of energy is stored as
pressure energy as to SERB SWP.
These renewable energy plants can work in symbiosis with the
NPP, may participate in adjusting the load curve and as power
intervention plants.

CONCLUSIONS
This paper presents the conflict that arose between plants
producing electricity from renewable energy and plants
producing electricity from conventional carbon sources and
nuclear power plants. This conflict is because in the NPS with
the development of electricity production from renewable
sources both consumption and production of energy have
pronounced random characteristics. For this reason the
production of electricity cannot be correlated with consumption
and large imbalances occur that can generate power system
instabilities and conflicts between electricity producers,
enhanced by policies favouring the production of electricity
from renewable energy.
This conflict arises from:
1. Random nature of the production of electricity from
renewable energy that cannot be correlated with the energy
needs of consumers;
2. Current technology and equipment for the conversion of
renewable energy in electricity which not achieve its storage;
3. Current policies favouring the production of electricity
from renewable energy;
4. Low capacity of conventional power plants, especially
nuclear power plants to modify the power in the limits imposed
by the appearance and disappearance of electricity produced
from renewable sources in NPS;
5. Random overloading of the electricity transmission system
in some areas with losses of power and generation of unstable
regimes.
This paper presents a new concept of efficient renewable power
plant with storage that could solve relatively quickly most of the
problems generated by the current technologies for exploiting
renewable energy.
The new renewable energy power plants collect with high
efficiency two forms of renewable energy such as sun and wind.
Renewable energy collected by the new plants has
complementary periods of appearance making to mitigate the
randomness of electricity produce from the new plants.
New renewable power plants store the excess of renewable
energy by compressing air or water heating in tanks that are the
support structures of the plant.
Electricity production is achieved by downloading the
compressed air into compressed air turbine in the first stage and
in the new wind turbines (which collects also the energy of the
natural airflow) in the second stage or by generating airflow
through the chimney effect using the stored heat.
Currently existing conflict between producers of electricity
from renewable energy and classic producers of electricity and
especially nuclear power plants can be removed in two ways:
a. Development of power plants for intervention using classic
resources. In this case, reducing pollution and greenhouse
gases is smaller and larger investments are needed;
b. Development of renewable energy plants to efficiently
collect several types of renewable energy and to a store it
such as SERB type plant or similar. In this case pollution

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reduction and especially greenhouse gases is significant. The

safety of the electro-energy systems is improved because the
new power plants can be efficiently used to adjust the load
curve and can be used as intervention plants. If several
plants are constructed and evenly distributed in the NPS
there wont be large amounts of energy transported in the
electro-energy system with high losses and instabilities.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This paper was prepared by the lead author Madalina Zamfir
from CITON. The paper benefited from an internal CITON
review, as well as valuable comments and guidance from Viorel
Serban (CITON); Carmen Safta PhD Asociate Professor at
Politechnica University Bucharest Faculty of Power
Engineering and PhD Professor Ilie Prisecaru (UPB Faculty of
Power Engineering). The rest of the authors also had a valuable
contribution to this paper.
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