The diploma thesis contains the currently topical topic of the transition to green energy sources. As we know, the use of fossil fuels is becoming a major political problem in a good part of the world. Indeed, according to the advocates of so-called decarbonization, fossil fuels have a negative impact on the environment and their price increases every year. That is why the political agendas of the so-called Western world, especially the EU, favor the transition of electricity generation to so-called renewable or green energy sources. The latter includes sources such as wind and the Sun and, according to the latest decision of the European Commission, also nuclear energy. The purpose of this thesis is to study a possible way of decarbonizing electricity production with the help of small nuclear reactors in Europe and Slovenia.
The first part of the thesis is devoted to a brief history and the beginnings of electricity production in Europe and the world.
The second part describes the composition of the electricity network that connects Europe and the method of obtaining electricity in individual countries in Europe.
In the third part, we explain how it is possible to decarbonize Europe's electricity system and achieve a stable source of electricity production.
In the fourth part of the assignment, the calculations of the electricity consumption of different types of electric cars and the consumption of heat pumps in relation to the electricity production of small nuclear reactors are presented in tables. In the future, the aforementioned consumers are expected to significantly influence the consumption of electricity.
As we found out, in the past most of the electricity in Europe and the world was produced from fossil fuels and nuclear energy. According to the current situation, this is still true, but since 2000, Europe has been aiming for the complete decarbonization of electricity production by 2050 with the help of renewable sources, and the focus is mainly on wind and solar power plants. Another conclusion is that the planned decarbonization by the European Union will not be possible for technical reasons, because wind and solar power plants do not represent a sufficiently stable and constant source of electricity that would supply the entire electricity network in Europe, if we do not introduce technically possible, but economically and practically currently unfeasible quantities of energy storage. We further note that the decarbonization of electricity production in Europe can only be carried out by using nuclear energy or the construction of new nuclear power plants and to use, above all, a new branch of nuclear reactors, namely small modular nuclear reactors, which in the future will contribute to additional electricity production and the possible electrification of transport throughout Europe. However, the commercial plural use of these is at least a decade or two away.
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