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Search results for: “power factor”

  • Power plants: average capacity?

    Power plants: average capacity?

    This data-file aggregates granular data into the average capacity of different types of power plants: wind, solar, nuclear, gas, hydro, coal, biomass, landfill gas and geothermal. Energy transition is going to increase the number of inter-connections to the grid by 10-100x.

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  • Solar volatility: second by second output data?

    Solar volatility: second by second output data?

    We have aggregated the volatility and power drops across an entire year of second-by-second solar data. Each day typically sees 100 volatility events where output drops by over 10%, and 10 events where output drops by over 70 events. Volatility also varies day by day.

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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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  • Gas power: does low utilization entail spare capacity?

    Gas power: does low utilization entail spare capacity?

    The US has >400GW of large gas-fired power plants running at 40% average annual utilization. Could they help power new loads, e.g., 60GW of AI data-centers by 2030? This 5-page note shows why low utilization does not entail spare capacity, and in turn, estimates the true spare capacity for loads such as data-centers.

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  • Global power price volatility tracker?

    Global power price volatility tracker?

    The volatility of power grids has doubled over the past decade from 2013-2024. This data-file tracks the percentile-by-percentile distributions of power prices, each year, in seven major grid regions (Texas, California, US MidWest, Australia, the UK, Germany, and Spain), as a way of tracking increases in global power price volatility. The growing volatility of power…

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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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  • 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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  • Power grids: transmission and distribution kilometers by country?

    Power grids: transmission and distribution kilometers by country?

    This data-file aggregates power transmission and distribution kilometers by country, across 30 key countries, which comprise 80% of global electricity use. In 2023, the world contains 7M circuit kilometers of power transmission lines and 110M kilometers of power distribution lines. Useful rules of thumb are in the data-file.

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  • Diesel power generation: levelized costs?

    Diesel power generation: levelized costs?

    A multi-MW scale diesel generator requires an effective power price of 20c/kWh, in order to earn a 10% IRR, on c$700/kW capex, assuming $70 oil prices and c150km trucking of oil products to the facility. Economics can be stress-tested in the Model-Base tab.

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  • Energy transition companies?

    Energy transition companies?

    This database contains a record of every company that has ever been mentioned across Thunder Said Energy’s energy technology research, as a useful reference for TSE’s clients. The database summarizes 3,000 mentions of 1,700 energy transition companies, broader energy producing and consuming companies, their size, focus and a summary of our key conclusions, plus links…

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