Economic Model

Energy economics: an overview?

This data-file provides an overview of energy economics, across 175 different economic models constructed by Thunder Said Energy, in order to put numbers in context. This helps to compare marginal costs, capex costs, energy intensity, interest rate sensitivity, and other key parameters that matter in the energy transition.
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Industrial robot costs: robotic economics?

There are 5M industrial robots deployed globally. A typical example costs $130k to install, does incur costs to run, but displaces 1.3 FTE jobs, saves 50% total costs, and thus achieves a payback of 1.5-years and a project-level IRR of 65%. This data-file captures the economics of deploying industrial robots.
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Poly Vinyl Chloride: the economics?

This data-file estimates the cost of PVC production and the cost of VCM production, from first principles, based on capex, input materials, heat, electricity, labor and other opex. As a rule of thumb, 10% IRRs require c$900/ton PVC and c$750/ton VCM, and PVC will embed around 2 tons of CO2 per ton of PVC. Numbers…
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Conveyor costs: economics of moving bulk material?

Conveyors are often the most economical way to move bulk materials over long distances, e.g., from a mine to a processing plant, with an economic cost of $0.1/ton-km, in order to generate a 10% IRR on capex, opex and other costs. These costs are c30% lower than for heavy trucks, opex is at least 60%…
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Waste-to-energy: levelized costs of electricity?

A typical waste-to-energy plant, without subsidies, must charge 16c/kWh to generate a 10% IRR off of c$7,000/kW in capex costs, plus another 14c/kwh-equivalent of revenues from avoided landfilling and metals recovery. This economic model covers waste-to-energy levelized costs of electricity.
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eHighway economics: costs of electrifying heavy trucks?

eHighways present an opportunity to electrify heavy trucking, by conveying medium voltage power via overhead steel catenary lines, through a pantograph, to an electric or hybrid-electric truck. This data-file captures the economics of eHighways, covering capex costs, returns and sensitivities, both for road operators and truck operators. The CO2 intensity of trucking can be reduced…
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Phosphoric acid production costs?

Phosphoric acid production costs are $500-900/ton, for a 10% IRR on a new facility, with $1,000-2,000/Tpa of capex. This is using the ‘wet process’, where phosphate ores are reacted with sulfuric acid. CO2 intensity is 0.6 tons/ton. However, the numbers depend on product purity. There is also a 10x higher carbon, yet potentially lower-cost process,…
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Costs of biogas upgrading to biomethane?

Costs of biogas upgrading into biomethane are estimated at $7/mcf off of capex cost of $400/ton, in this data-file. The largest contributor to total costs is carbon filtering, to remove siloxanes, VOCs and H2S, which we have modelled from first principles, at $2/mcfe. Underlying data into biogas compositions and impurities are also tabulated for reference.
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Plastic recycling: the economics?

Plastic recycling requires a $500/ton product price, to earn a 10% IRR off of c$1,000/Tpa of up-front capex, at a mechanical recycling facility with 0.3 tons/ton of CO2 intensity (up to 80-90% below virgin plastics, more than we expected). This data-file captures the economics and the costs of plastic recycling, especially for the mechanical recycling…
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Gold hydrogen: the economics?

Natural hydrogen could be recovered from the Earth’s subsurface, with costs ranging from $0.3-10/kg, and CO2 intensities of 0.2-5.0 kg/kg. This data-file models the economic costs of gold hydrogen, and its sub-variants such as white hydrogen and orange hydrogen.
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Energy Units — An Overview

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