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Search results for: โ€œhydroโ€

  • Hydro power: generation by facility, availability over time?

    Hydro power: generation by facility, availability over time?

    Hydro power generation by facility is tabulated in this data-file for the 20 largest hydro-electric plants in the US. The average facility achieves 43% availability, varying from 39% in hot-dry years to 51% in wet years; and from 33% at the seasonal trough in September-October to 53% at the seasonal peak in May-June. What implications…

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  • Pumped hydro: generation profile?

    Pumped hydro: generation profile?

    Pumped hydro facilities can provide long-duration storage, but the utilization rate is low, and thus the costs are high, according to today’s case study within the Snowy hydro complex in Australia. Tumut-3 can store energy for weeks-months, then generate 1.8 GW for 40+ hours, but it is only charging/dischaging at 12% of its nameplate capacity.

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  • Pumped hydro: the economics?

    Pumped hydro: the economics?

    This data-file assesses pumped hydro costs, to back up wind and solar. A typical project has 0.5GW of capacity, 12-hours storage duration, 80% efficiency, and capex costs of $2,250/kW. Thus it requires a 25c/kWh storage spread, in order to generate a 10% IRR.

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  • Hydro electric power: the economics?

    Hydro electric power: the economics?

    A typical hydro project requires a 10c/kWh power price and a $50/ton CO2 price to generate an unlevered IRR of 10%. 80% of the cost is capex. Hence at a 6% hurdle rate, the incentive price falls to 6c/kWh. Cash opex is 2c/kWh. CO2 intensity is effectively nil, even after reflecting the construction energy.

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  • Global hydrogen: market breakdown?

    Global hydrogen: market breakdown?

    This data-file is a global hydrogen market breakdown, disaggregating the 110MTpa market (mainly ammonia, methanol and refining), how it is met via different production technologies, and our estimates of those technologies’ costs (in $/kg) and CO2 intensities (in kg/kg or tons/ton).

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  • Water intensity of power generation?

    Water intensity of power generation?

    The water intensity of US power generation averages 21 liters per kWh (5,600 gallons per MWH), but 95% of this total comes from evaporation at hydro reservoirs. Excluding hydro power, good estimates are that nuclear power uses 2.1 liters/kWh of water, coal power uses 2 liters/kWh and CCGTs use 1.2 liters/kWh, or less in some…

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  • Renewables: share of global energy and electricity by country?

    Renewables: share of global energy and electricity by country?

    This data-file is an Excel “visualizer” for some of the key headline metrics in global energy: such as total global energy use, electricity generation by source and growing renewables penetration; broken down country-by-country, and showing how these metrics have changed over time.

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  • Turquoise hydrogen from methane pyrolysis: economics?

    Turquoise hydrogen from methane pyrolysis: economics?

    Turquoise hydrogen is produced by thermal decomposition of methane at high temperatures, from 600-1,200โ—ฆC. Costs can beat green hydrogen. This data-file quantifies the economics (in $/kg), how to generate 10% IRRs, possible capex costs, and remaining challenges for commercialization.

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  • Power generation: asset lives?

    Power generation: asset lives?

    Power generation asset lives average c70-years for large hydro, 55-years for new nuclear, 45-years for coal, 33-years for gas, 20-25 years for wind/solar and 15-years for batteries. This flows through to LCOE models. However, each asset type follows a distribution of possible asset lives, as tabulated and contrasted in this data-file. Asset lives of power…

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  • Global electricity prices vs. CO2 intensities?

    Global electricity prices vs. CO2 intensities?

    Retail electricity prices average 11c/kWh globally, of which 50-60% is wholesale power generation, 25-35% is transmission and 10-20% covers other administrative costs of utilities. The average CO2 intensity of the global average power grid is 0.45 kg/kWh. Variations are wide. And there is a -35% correlation between electricity prices vs CO2 intensities in different countries…

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