>In this case the scale works in our favor. Either offer the possibility of penny a kWh electricity and dollar a gallon synthetic gasoline.
I have a low-cost renewable solution in the works, it's at least an order of magnitude cheaper than other renewables (in most cases 2 orders of magnitude cheaper!) at 5c / kWh. That's generally considered to be the price of coal-fired electricity, and it's probably the cheapest electricity we'll see this decade, when you factor in the environmental cost of coal. The penny per kWh you mentioned is probably achievable from renewable sources, given sufficient incentive / time / r&d / willpower / new tech / investment etc. (When it comes to engineering, it's a generally-accepted principle that it's possible to improve any one property of a system by an order of magnitude, provided you don't violate the laws of physics in the process, and given also that the other parameters of the system are free for the engineer to manipulate. Cost per kilowatt-hour is just such a property) As for synthetic petrol, the price you mentioned is way way way too low; petrol (or 'gasoline' if you prefer!) has an energy density of around 45 megajoules per kilogram (MJ/kg) [1, 2] -- so a US gallon of gasoline works out at about 230 megajoules. Assuming 100% conversion efficiency, even with the hypothetical 1c/kWh price, that still works out at $1,255.81 per gallon!!! That's way out there; you'd need to achieve three orders of magnitude improvement in the price of energy over your 1c/kWh to get your buck a gallon at the pump! Don't believe me? Energy density of petrol (per kilogram) 45,000.00 kJ / kg Density of petrol 737.22 kg / m^3 Energy density of petrol (per litre) 33,174.90 kJ / L Metric/imperial conversion factor 0.26417 gallons / L Energy density of petrol (per gallon) 125,580.66 kJ / gallon Cost per kilojoule ( == kWh) (hypothetical) $0.01 $ / kJ Price per gallon (hypothetical) $1,255.81 $ / gallon Regards Curtis Renewable energy Maru: breed whales, burn the oil References: [1] : http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2003/ArthurGolnik.shtml [2] : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
