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Search results for: “semiconductors semiconductor silicon SiC”

  • Manufacturing methods: an overview?

    Manufacturing methods: an overview?

    An of overview of manufacturing methods is given in this data-file. Costs are 70% correlated with energy intensity, ranging from well below 0.3 MWH/ton to well above 7MWH/ton. The lowest cost techniques take place at huge throughput in the mining industry, while the most intricate are used in semiconductor.

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  • Rare Earth market: by metal, by use, by value?

    Rare Earth market: by metal, by use, by value?

    The global Rare Earth market is 390kTpa of mined Rare Earth Oxide equivalents, which is processed to yield 150kTpa of sellable Rare Earth materials, with a value of $7bn pa. But “price” is not “value”. This data-file breaks down the global Rare Earth market, by metal, by price (in $/kg), by volume (in Tpa), and…

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  • Prysmian E3X: reconductoring technology?

    Prysmian E3X: reconductoring technology?

    Prysmian E3X technology is a ceramic coating that can be added onto new and pre-existing power transmission cables, improving their thermal emissivity,so they heat up 30% less, have 25% lower resistive losses, and/or can carry 25% increased currents. This data-file locates the patents underpinning E3X technology, identifies the materials used, and finds a strong moat.

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  • Solar trackers: leading companies?

    Solar trackers:  leading companies?

    This data-file summarizes the leading companies in solar trackers, their pricing (in $/kW), operating margins (in %), company sizes, sales mixes and recent news flow. Five companies supply 70% of the market, which is worth $10bn pa, and increasingly gaining in importance?

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  • Lithium ion battery costs: materials and manufacturing?

    Lithium ion battery costs: materials and manufacturing?

    Lithium ion battery costs range from $40-140/kWh, depending on the chemistry (LFP vs NMC), geography (China vs the West) and cost basis (cash cost, marginal cost and actual pricing). This data-file is a breakdown of lithium ion battery costs, across c15 materials and c20 manufacturing stages, so input assumptions can be stress-tested.

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  • Silver pastes for solar contacts?

    Silver pastes for solar contacts?

    50 companies make conductive silver pastes to form the electrical contacts in solar modules. This data-file tabulates the compositions of silver pastes based on patents, averaging 85% silver, 4% glass frit and 11% organic chemicals. Ten companies stood out, including a Korean small-cap specialist.

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  • Solar+AI: bootstrapping a sci-fi scenario?

    Solar+AI: bootstrapping a sci-fi scenario?

    What if a data center was powered entirely by solar, and then the profits and spare computation resources from the data-center were fully reinvested in building more solar and building more racks? Could you end up with 100TW-scale data-centers?! Would this scenario fail to materialize because we would run out of things to compute? Or…

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  • Electric vehicle: battery life?

    Electric vehicle: battery life?

    Electric vehicle battery life will realistically need to reach 1,500 cycles for the average passenger vehicle, 2,000-3,000 cycles after reflecting a margin of safety for real-world statistical distributions, and 3,000-6,000 cycles for higher-use commercial vehicles. This means lithium ion batteries may be harder to displace with novel chemistries?

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  • Model of losses in a solar cell: surface, emitter and shading?

    Model of losses in a solar cell: surface, emitter and shading?

    This data-file calculates the losses in a solar cell from first principles. Losses on the surface of the cell are typically c4%, due to contact resistance, emitter resistance and shading. Sensitivity analysis suggests there may be future potential to halve silver content in a solar cell from 20g/kW to 10g/kW without materially increasing the losses…

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  • Hydrofluoric acid: the economics?

    Hydrofluoric acid: the economics?

    Hydrogen fluoride is a crucial commodity chemical. This model captures its production from acid-grade fluorspar and sulfuric acid. We think marginal costs are around $1,850/ton, in order to earn a 10% IRR on a production facility costing $4,000/Tpa, while the fully loaded CO2 intensity is around 0.75 tons/ton.

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