Business ecosystem for SMR Technologies · EcoSMR • Aims to improve the readiness of Finnish actors to compete on the global SMR market. • By networking current providers, identifying

Business ecosystem for SMR Technologies

Ville Tulkki, Erika Holt, Matti

Paljakka, Tapani Ryynänen

(contact: [email protected])

EcoSMR

EcoSMR• Aims to improve the readiness of Finnish actors to compete

on the global SMR market.

• By networking current providers, identifying competence gaps

and learning emerging market needs.

• Analyses potential use cases like district heating, large

industry heat demand and combined heat and power CHP.

• Thus being able to create targeted knowledge that drives

product service development and customer understanding.

8.1.2019 VTT – beyond the obvious 2

What are SMRs


What are small modular reactors?

• By definition ”small” is 300 MW electric or smaller

• Modular, as in standardized modules

• Many reactor modules potentially in a power plant

• Reactor module may come from a factory, facility around the

reactor may be from local supply

• Important, not all reactors under ”SMR” umberella modular!

• Nuclear reactors

• Low-carbon energy supply

• Different reactors for different end uses

• Supply of electricity, heat for cities or industry

Applications


Desalination

District heatElectricity

Industrial

process heat

Hydrogen

production

Grid support

Off-grid

applications

Sources for improved economics

Modularity

• Future will show


Alternative uses

• Heat production

• ~3 times more thermal energy

for given plant size

• Potentially lighter, simpler

construction

New technologies

• Still to be demonstrated

Why now? Need for new solutions• Future electrification, interconnected market may

yield need for new electricity

• For nuclear SMRs may be the future go-to if mass

production happens

• Most of the remaining fossil fuels are CHP

(district heating) and industrial use (steel,

refinery, cement), also potential for resource

saving (more products from biomass)

• Coal ban puts up a tight deadline

• Upcoming nuclear legistlation renewal

VTT 2018

Non-electric

application of

nuclear energy?

Why now? Technology ready

Several First of a Kinds already coming:

• CNNC district heating reactor operational by November 2020

• NuScale reactor just passed Phase 1 of US NRC evaluation

• License by the end of 2020, first SMR in Idaho by 2026

• Chinese high temperature reactor first criticality within a year

Need international reference (pref. in Western country), use case,

potentially adaptation

• E.g. CNNC DHR400 international deployment would need containment

• Similar situation historically: VVER reactors to Loviisa

First users would benefit in future international deployment

• Expertise for consulting, supply chain experience

Business potential in World

National Nuclear Laboratory

• 65-85 GW by 2035

• 300B-450B €

• Electricity only

Heat market

• EUROPAIRS project

• ~100 GW market in EU alone

with current technology

• More with non-LWR

technology

Opportunities for subcontractors

Compared to large nuclear power plants:

• Smaller, but more components

• Aim for standardized designs

• Supply chain can be sustained better

Reactors from a factory, facility and its

integration may be more flexible


Challenges

VTT 2018

Small modularreactors

Stakeholderawareness,

understandingoptions and limitations

Publicawareness

and acceptance

Integrationto system

and regulation

Vendorreadiness

Ecosystem’s opportunities in Finland

VTT has positive experience from creating and running ecosystems in Finland

VTT has performed safety and feasibitily studies on SMRs as well as some

information dissemination

• Potential for new applications as well as need for established supply chains

Finnish actors have experience in large NPP supply chain

• Can be applied for SMRs

VTT can provide knowledge and international networks, from cross-disciplinary

fields/industries

VTT can be the ecosystem hub

• Facilitator of activities

• Assist in development (technology innnovation project) formulation – for any interested

companies

Ecosystems


Ecosystem for SMR of nuclear facilities

KnowledgeEcosystemFocusing on

generation of new knowledge and

technologies

InnovationEcosystem

Integrating between exploration (knowledge) and exploitation

(business) ecosystems

BusinessEcosystem

Focusing customer value creation

BF

Competitor

Innovationbroker

University VTT

Intermediator

Platforms

Subcontractor

Machinery company

Customer

ICTcompany

Focal company

University

University

STUKInternationa

l

Finnuclear

Industrial heat user

Utilities

Engineering consultant

Heat user

Equipment supplier

company

Global SMR market is growing fast

Customer need is such that no-one is able to solve by acting alone

Increases the amount of opportunities with broader contact network

Support in searching for market requirements, partners, best business practices, research activities, funding options, joint marketing channels & actions

Birth

Goal setting and identifying of key players

Expansion

Value co-creation

New valuecapture

Leadership

Orchestration and business

Self-renewal

Co-evolution

Dynamics, co-evolution

Dynamic of ecosystem

Competition and collaboration

Ecosystem = set of stakeholders involved in providing solutions for specific end user needs

Business network = actors involved in direct

commercial relationships (transaction or contract

based)

”The ecosystem is the environment – the space of actors - where a company operates or intend to operate. Here it find customers with specific needs, knowledge creators to learn from, and partners to form business networks with. Here is also finds competitors and other actors serving the same end user needs. Understanding the dynamics of the ecosystem, helps an actor to identify and develop its role in the system now and in the future”.

Diverse actors with a common interest

Source: M. Simons, VTT

Ecosystem functioning for SMR technologies

Co-creation of new businesses • new offerings – technologies, tools,

services

• new business models

• joint marketing and offering

R&D&I projects • joint projects with consortium

• company specific

• generating project ideas and funding

(BF, EU, or Shared Benefit)

Business & co-innovation

Ecosystem functioning for SMR technologies

Semi annual

Meeting

Semi annual

Meeting

RT

2

RT

3

RT

4

RT

3

RT

3

RT

4

RT

1

RT

1

RT

2

RT

2

Meeting:

• Presentations

• Group working

• New topics for RT work

Meeting:

• Presentations

• Group working

• Learning from RT work

SMR Business Day

• Open

• Outside specialists and

company presentations

• Networking

Round table working:

• Around different themes

• Companies’ benchmark

and develop models,

views, approaches

• Research integrated

Inte

gra

tion

of re

su

lts

Learning & knowledge sharing

SMR

Business

Day

Co-creation of new

businesses • new offerings – technologies,

tools, services

• new business models

• joint marketing and offering

R&D&I projects • joint projects with consortium

• company specific

• generating project ideas and

funding (BF, EU, or Shared

Benefit)

Business & co-innovation

Ecosystem evolution fromExploration to Exploitation / R&D view

Leve

l of

pro

du

ctiz

atio

n

Solution readiness

Exploration

Exploitation

Del

iver

yH

OW

?

R&D&IWHAT?

Customer

partnerships

Systemic

solutions

Leve

l of

pro

du

ctiz

atio

n

Solution readiness

Exploration

Exploitation

Del

iver

yH

OW

?

R&D&IWHAT?

Customer

partnerships

Systemic

solutions

Questions

Answers

Sales

Ecosystem evolution fromExploration to Exploitation / R&D view

Ecosystems & Business Finland funding instruments

Co-innovationproject2 years

Co-innovationproject II

Co-innovationproject ..n

Ecosystem – knowledge creation & sharing

Research project

R&Dprojects C

om

pan

yp

roje

ct

Research topic, WP1, WP2, WP3..

Co-creationproject

SME

pro

ject

Co

mp

any

pro

ject

Co

mp

any

pro

ject

CompanyR&D project

Research subcontracting

SMEsubcontracting

Company own work

NOW

Research project supports Company projects

Rese

arch p

roject

WP 1: Mgmnt

SMEproject

Companyproject

Companyproject

WP 2: SMRx

WP 3: BM&E

WP n: nn

WP n: Expl and Dissemination

Companyproject

Topics, data, cases, experiences

Expertise &research

FACILITATION

COLLABORATION

CONFIDENTIAL PUBLICSu

bco

ntr

acte

d c

on

fid

enti

al

dev

elo

pm

ent

and

res

earc

h

Co

mp

any

R&

D p

roje

cts

Research project supports Company projects

Common research topics that connect activities

Rese

arch p

roject

WP 1: Mgmnt

SMEproject

Companyproject

Companyproject

WP 2: SMRx

WP 3: BM&E

WP n: nn

WP n: Expl and Dissemination

Companyproject

Topics, data, cases, experiences

Expertise &research

FACILITATION

COLLABORATION

CONFIDENTIAL PUBLICSu

bco

ntr

acte

d c

on

fid

enti

al

dev

elo

pm

ent

and

res

earc

h

Co

mp

any

R&

D p

roje

cts

Steps for companies

1st phase: Co-Creation Project aims at getting together interested

participants (public workshops) to identify needs and way

forward. VTT can as facilitator.

2nd phase: Co-Innovation Project multiple year (forum for

generation of R&D and business opportunities together).

Business Finland can also support (2+ years, via company

applications).

Need to hear expressions of interest from industry, associations

etc. International participants are also allowed.

Summary

VTT has an ecosystem vision for 2018-2020

• Strong international business opportunity

• Business Finland project(s)

• SMR project activities (H2020 etc) exploited for this

development

Ask from Companies their view and goals

• How do you see your role in this ecosystem?

• Is nuclear business already part of your PSS portfolio?

Workshop summary 1/x Workshop was the first activity in the project preparation to initiate a

discussion forum between SMR users, providers and researchers.

First concept ideas were drafted about what type of SMRs could be best fit for

Finnish / Nordic type of market:

• Electricity is already produced competitively and relatively

environmentally friendly; district heat and industrial process heat would be areas

where SMR could be a better and economical option

Current solutions available on the market might not be suitable since they

are focused on electricity production first, heat second

It could also be an option worth studying to add a CHP option in some

electricity only concepts

Workshop summary 2/x

Level of domestic content in the case of local market and export was

raised

• Level is different in the case of different SMR concepts

• Level can be potentially very high in local projects

• To enhance competitiveness on international market Finnish system level joint

offerings and business models, and partnerships with turn key suppliers are needed

A key challenge is the regulatory approval schedule

• Regulations and licencing are non-uniform complex global processes

with no exact results

• An iterative and dialogic approach is needed to both secure flow of

information and eliminate unnecessary R&D costs

Action points

Organizing workshops with manufacturing companies, final

workshop

Contacting new potential project partners

Initial scoping of needed expertise for 1) participating in SMR

supply chain 2) developing a heat reactor design

Initial market analysis for potential international demand

• Business Finland emphasized the need for increasing the

export potential for SMEs

Topics to be addressed

09/01/2019 VTT – beyond the obvious 28

Reactor concept

Either existing

commercial reactor

or Finnish heat

reactor

Use case

What is needed by

user? Technical

details, demands,

limitations

Business case

What are

commercial,

regulatory, social

requirements plant

needs to fulfil

Business case

Global potential

demand for the

solution

Finnish

business

Potential Finnish

supply?

Manufacturing,

project

management, etc

Cross-cutting

Indirect benefits

from this activity

Collaborate with

international

partners on

use/business

case; develop

simple heat

reactor to match

business case

Requirements

for different heat

uses

investigated,

process

interface to

reactors etc

Business cases

with all the

requirements

mapped,

iterative work

with reactor

design, users,

manufacturers,

regulators…

Global business

cases,

collaboration

with

international

actors

Capabilities of

Finnish supply

chains

improved,

networking,

feedback to

reactor and user

interface

Contacts

ville.tulkki(at)vtt.fi, +358 40 1840852tapani.ryynanen(at)vtt.fi, +358 40 7330048


Documents

Business ecosystem for SMR Technologies · EcoSMR • Aims to improve the readiness of Finnish actors to compete on the global SMR market. • By networking current providers, identifying