Repowering existing coal plant infrastructure – including with small modular reactors – is the largest single carbon abatement opportunity on the planet and could greatly accelerate the clean energy transition while using existing infrastructure and maintaining vital jobs, according to a report.

Apart from enabling a transition to low-carbon energy sources, repowering coal plants would sustain the jobs and community tax revenues associated with existing coal plants. It would maintain the social, economic and environmental benefits associated with continued electricity generation and allow for the continued use of existing transmission lines – without emissions.

The report by TerraPraxis, a non-profit organisation focused on action for climate and prosperity, says replacing coal-fired boilers at existing coal plants with carbon-free SMRs, also known as advanced heat sources, would transform coal-fired power plants from polluting liabilities facing an uncertain future, into a central component of a clean energy system transition – an important part of the massive and pressing infrastructure buildout needed to address climate change.