Solar energy: is 50% efficiency now attainable?
…of light. These alloys are composed of elements from Groups III and V in the periodic table. Group III includes boron, aluminium, gallium and indium. Group V includes nitrogen, phosphorus,…
HVDC power transmission: the economics?
…an adjacent opportunity in STATCOMs, a screen of leading HVDC companies, a patent review for Prysmian, project parameters for Chinese HVDCs, and an overview of future aluminium and copper demand….
Vertical greenhouses: the economics?
…120 aluminium towers to grow 0.5T of leafy vegetables per day. Economics of vertical greenhouses can be attractive, with 10% IRRs in our base case condition, off 50kg/m2/year yields and…
Energy economics: an overview?
…costs re-inflates new energies 10-20%, infrastructure 2-20%, materials 2-6%, and conventional energy 2-5% (chart below, note here). The energy intensity of materials is visible across our models of Acetylene, Aluminium,…
Copper: global demand forecasts?
…forecasts. A prior iteration of the model had copper demand ramping to 75MTpa, but we recently revised this lower, as we expected more thrifting and substitution towards aluminium as a…
Battery recycling: the economics?
This data-file models the economics of recycling spent lithium ion batteries, taking in waste cells at end-of-life, and recovering materials such as cobalt, nickel, manganese, copper, aluminium, lithium and steel….
Carbon leakage: China versus the West, 1999-2019
…called ‘carbon leakage’. $449.00 – Purchase Checkout Added to cart To do this, we have quantified volumes of specific materials (steel, aluminium, copper, plastics, glass, industrial acids) and manufactured goods (cars, refrigerators,…
Vehicle mass: what opportunities to improve fuel economy?
…Underlying calculations can be stress-tested in the data-file. Materials that improve underlying vehicle weights include carbon fiber, advanced polymers and aluminium, as summarized via the links below. https://thundersaidenergy.com/2021/08/12/carbon-fiber-the-miracle-material https://thundersaidenergy.com/downloads/global-plastics-an-overview https://thundersaidenergy.com/downloads/metals-and-materials-strength-and-temperature-resistance…
Power grids: transmission and distribution kilometers by country?
…aluminium conductors. Countries tend to have longer power transmission networks per unit of delivered electricity when (a) population density is lower (b) GDP per capita is lower and (c) average…
Sitka spruce: our top ten facts?
…was built using Sitka spruce, as it made the world’s first powered flight in 1903. In WWII the British even used it instead of aluminium to produce parts of the…