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By combining technical expertise and strategic leadership with a deep understanding of what creates and drives social and technological change
WE PROVIDE INNOVATIVE CONSULTING TO
THE WORLD'S LARGEST ENERGY USERS
ENABLING GROWTH
AND ENERGY SECURITY THROUGH STRATEGIC SOLUTIONS
News and Events Highlights
Kirsty Gogan gives keynote address at the International Energy Agency's Stakeholder Engagement Conference
May 2025. LucidCatalyst's Managing Partner Kirsty Gogan was honored to give the keynote address at the IEA's Stakeholder Engagement Conference. In her address, "From Mega Projects to Mass Manufacturing: A New Nuclear Paradigm," she said that to meet the scale of demand, we need to fundamentally transform how we develop and deploy nuclear projects.
Eric Ingersoll speaks at the REbuild Conference: New Frontiers in Energy Sources and Decarbonization
May 6, 2025, Rive del Garda, Italy. LucidCatalyst's Managing Partner Eric Ingersoll spoke about new frontiers of energy sources for decarbonization and how to rapidly decarbonize the global energy system.
Jan 21, 2025. LucidCatalyst's managing partners, Kirsty Gogan and Eric Ingersoll, representing our NGO partner Terra Praxis today launched the Ten-Terawatt Initiative (TTI) at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos. The Ten-Terawatt Initiative (TTI) is a fundamental redirect in our global energy system to maximize the use of existing infrastructure, triple the world’s energy supply, and create unprecedented global economic growth—without emissions. Read White Paper.
January 21, 2025. Following a successful collaboration throughout 2024 between Terra Praxis (a non profit organization founded by LucidCatalyst's managing partners) and the World Economic Forum, LucidCatalyst's Managing Partner Kirsty Gogan chaired the first-ever public session focused on nuclear energy at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos on January 20-24 2025.
Released Jan 16, 2025, this report shows the fresh impetus behind nuclear in the form of new policies, projects, investments and technological advances, such as small modular reactors (SMRs). It provides a comprehensive assessment of the current situation, identifying the major challenges that need to be addressed to build on the current momentum and enable a new era to take hold. This includes insights on how to finance new nuclear projects while ensuring reliable and diversified supply chains for building and fueling them.
Repowering the World: A Novel Solution for Zero-Emission Nuclear Power Generation
December 3, 2024. Eric Ingersoll presented for the MIT Club of Northern California (MITCNC) webinar and shared a strategy and the progress underway to enable 10 TWe of clean energy to be deployed in 10 years, starting in 2030. He described a practical approach for repurposing coal plants — as well as other industrial energy infrastructure — cost-effectively, quickly, and at scale.
U.S. Gov't-Funded Coal-to-Nuclear Project in Ukraine
Announced by our NGO partner Terra Praxis on Nov 18, 2024, LucidCatalyst is supporting Terra Praxis on this U.S. government-funded Coal-to-Nuclear Project in Ukraine, which includes generative AI capabilities with Microsoft and Global Framework with the World Economic Forum to deliver fast, low-cost, and scalable nuclear deployment.
World Economic Forum Blog: Accelerating new nuclear and small modular reactor deployment
On November 7, the World Economic Forum (WEF) published a new blog "Accelerating new nuclear and small modular reactor deployment," authored by Kirsty Gogan, Managing Partner of LucidCatalyst and Founding Director and Co-CEO of TerraPraxis, and Kristen Panerali, Head of Clean Power and Electrification at the World Economic Forum. The blog addresses the growing demand for clean energy, fueled by electrification, the adoption of artificial intelligence, and expansion in emerging markets. As countries work to move away from carbon-intensive energy sources like coal, the urgency for advanced clean energy solutions intensifies. It emphasizes a new global framework designed to accelerate the deployment of advanced nuclear technology, aiming to unite stakeholders around key actions for harnessing carbon-free heat and power.
November 7, 2024 the World Economic Forum (WEF), in collaboration with Accenture, Terra Praxis (non-profit organization founded by LucidCatalyst's managing partners), and other stakeholders across the clean energy ecosystem, has released a framework to accelerate the deployment of advanced nuclear and SMRs to help meet rising global demand for clean energy. The white paper, "A Collaborative Framework for Accelerating Advanced Nuclear and Small Modular Reactor Deployment," serves as a tool to align stakeholders on actions within nine priority areas to accelerate deployment. The framework has been co-developed with stakeholders from across the nuclear ecosystem including experts from large energy-consuming industries, financiers, reactor vendors, supply chain businesses, utilities, government organizations, non-profits/NGOs and academia.
Shell's Chief Scientist on the Energy Transition
In this informative video by Shell’s Chief Scientist, Dirk Smit, on “how we can transform to a net-zero emissions energy system," he cites LucidCatalyst's work on off-shore production platforms for producing zero-carbon energy and fuels.
Laying the Foundation for New and Advanced Nuclear Reactors in the United StatesThis National Academies’ report discusses how the US could support the successful commercialization of advanced nuclear reactors with near-term actions to establish policies and practices. Kirsty Gogan of LucidCatalyst was part of the committee that oversaw and wrote this report.
Our Iowa wind study was cited in this Wall Street Journal article about local opposition to wind and solar projects (by Jennifer Hiller, published May 8, 2023).
Beautiful Nuclear: Driving Deep DecarbonisationOur report shows how nuclear energy helps meet all 17 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. No other electricity generation technology can match this diversity of beneficial impacts. The report argues that the priority for preventing irreversible climate change is decarbonisation, not the creation of energy systems which are 100% dependent on renewables. It is critical to take a whole system approach to the energy transition and for evidence-based decision making. In the context of the increasing urgency to replace fossil fuels, the range of low carbon options must include nuclear.
News and Events Highlights (continued)
LucidCatalyst partnered with ClearPath to develop this study, led and implemented by John Herter and Ian Woodhouse of LucidCatalyst. Eric Ingersoll provided the inspiration that energy models must realistically reflect the true costs and risks associated with each energy source. Reaching Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050 will require a massive infrastructure build-out of enough clean electricity generation while building the infrastructure necessary to electrify industry and transport along the way. Detailed computer models can optimize for the cheapest paths to achieve Net Zero but cannot easily account for the political feasibility and constraints ranging from local opposition to regulatory delays, supply chain issues, and workforce capacity.
Designing the terawatt transition
Read this Lloyd's Register article—Kirsty Gogan and Eric Ingersoll, Managing Directors at LucidCatalyst, examine the role the global shipbuilding industry could play in producing low-cost hydrogen as the world looks towards zero-carbon fuels.
A ground-breaking study released by EPRI, written by LucidCatalyst, identifies potential deployment paths for using advanced heat sources for producing zero-carbon liquid fuels.
Nuclear Law: The Global Debate (IAEA)
This book by leading experts in the nuclear industry, focuses on current issues in the field and identifies potential areas for further development. LucidCatalyst's Missing Link report is highlighted in Chapter 6 "The Challenge of Climate Change—Complete Energy Transformation: No Nuclear, No Net Zero," by Tim Stone, and also in Chapter 13 "The Humanitarian Atom: The Role of Nuclear Power in Addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals," by Sama Bilbao y Leon and John Lindberg.
A report by researchers at Stanford, MIT, and LucidCatalyst demonstrates how delaying closure of the plant would reduce California’s carbon emissions, reduce dependency on natural gas, and save billions in power system costs, in addition to providing desalinated water, and low-cost clean hydrogen. LucidCatalyst's Eric Ingersoll and Justin Aborn were major contributors to this report. Read this Op-Ed by former energy secretaries Steven Chu and Ernest Moniz in the LA Times, as well as articles in The Economist, MIT News, Forbes, Bloomberg, and WNN. Furthermore, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm supports keeping Diablo open, according to Reuters. Governor Gavin Newsom may attempt to delay the closure, as reported by AP and the LA Times.
Superhot Rock Geothermal – A Vision for Zero-Carbon Energy "Everywhere"
The UK's National Nuclear Lab Unveils Transformative Nuclear for Net Zero Modelling
LucidCatalyst contributed to this ground-breaking modelling report published by NNL demonstrating the role nuclear can play in delivering the UK’s net zero goals. This is the first time that such diverse, scalable and low-cost applications for nuclear technologies have been fully represented across the whole energy system.
Advanced Reactors Economics and Markets
In this paper, authors Charles Forsberg (MIT) and Eric Ingersoll (LucidCatalyst) argue that the viability of nuclear power ultimately depends on economics. They examine the key factors and markets that make projects viable.
Our landmark report: Missing Link to a Livable Climate: Hydrogen Enabled Synthetic Fuels was featured in the Sunday Times, Business Green, and World Nuclear News. This report describes how the world can still meet the Paris goals of 1.5–2°C if sufficient, low-cost, clean hydrogen and synfuels are produced to replace oil and gas in shipping, aviation, and industry. We've just issued a short "Lucid Insights" version of this report.
Large markets for advanced reactors that cost less than $3,000/kW
A study by LucidCatalyst for the ARPA-E MEITNER program is the first to derive the highest allowable capital cost for advanced reactors across four of the major power markets in the US in 2034. The study shows how advanced reactors can complement wind and solar. Together, these technologies drive down costs, reduce emissions, and improve performance in future US electricity grids.
Kirsty Gogan chairs the first-ever public session held on nuclear energy at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland
LucidCatalyst's Managing Partner, Kirsty Gogan, chaired the panel session on Jan 21, 2025 titled "The Road to Tripling Nuclear Capacity." The declaration to triple global nuclear capacity by 2050 is broadly supported by those who view nuclear as key to achieving Net Zero energy transition goals. IAEA Director General Grossi and other panelists discussed how momentum can be turned into action to scale up the world's nuclear capacity.
United Nations Climate Change Conference – COP28 Representing Terra Praxis, Eric Ingersoll and Kirsty Gogan joined global leaders in addressing the climate emergency at COP28 in Dubai in December 2023. Our purpose there was to share how, backed by collaborative partnerships, we plan to achieve our vision of universal access to affordable, reliable, and clean energy that empowers people and protects nature.
Eric Ingersoll and Kirsty Gogan attended and presented at the Nov 28-30, 2023 Enlit Europe Summit in Paris. Representing Terra Praxis As members of the Enlit Impact Circle, they also helped set the agenda for this 3-day conference that gathered 15,000 energy professionals, 700 exhibitors, and 500 speakers who presented on the latest industry developments helping to accelerate the energy transition.
International Symposium on the Development of Floating Nuclear Power Plants
Eric Ingersoll and Chirayu Batra attended and Kirsty Gogan opened and moderated the session "The Emerging Potential of Floating Nuclear Power Plants" at the IAEA's first International Symposium on the Deployment of Floating Nuclear Power Plants – Benefits and Challenges in Vienna on November 14-15, 2023.
Launching Repowering Coal initiative at COP27
Representing Terra Praxis at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, Eric Ingersoll and Kirsty Gogan launched a global Repowering Coal initiative to enable every coal plant owner in the world to assess their coal plant for conversion to clean energy. The team hosted events alongside global climate leaders and partner Microsoft.
De-risking the TeraWatt Transition at COP26
Eric Ingersoll and Kirsty Gogan, representing Terra Praxis, hosted a full-day event on De-risking the TeraWatt Transition with leaders who made a series of important announcements. Watch videos of each session.