How much of the steel industry is in China? My impression was a very large percentage of it. I wonder if this process would be utilized there. The game there seems to be the cheapest possible steel… not sure this fits into that.
I used the lower 7% number in that article, because that's the emissions one talks about when tackling process / blast furnace emissions, so I thought using the higher number would be misleading in that context. (I have mentioned both numbers in an earlier text that is also linked: https://industrydecarbonization.com/news/the-path-to-green-s... )
China in particular depends on long fragile trade routes from the Middle East for crude oil, and is already the world’s largest producer of solar panels.
Technology like this will get to enjoy the plunging cost of solar and wind power.
You can definitely see a divergence between countries that have made it a priority and those that haven't, even per capita.
Now that we've had larger deployments for awhile, are there any good number on capacity deterioration over time?
Curious what the effective install longevity is.
The compounding effects on this are going to be dramatic. Everyone who borrowed money at sub-5% rates and then saw retail electricity going up by 50% made a great decision.
Previously, worldwide supply expansion = increasing fuel costs in the global market
In a post-fuel / solar world, you can keep increasing supply capacity as long as you want. Which would upend a lot of assumptions about power. E.g. free or negative power cost at peak supply times, simply because people keep building capacity
The electricity price already turns negative in quite a few countries with larger shares of renewables at peak times, but isn't really being exploited right now due to the high capital cost and low usage for most things that need electricity.
Which is another way of asking "When will people stop consuming more power?"
Previously, we had finite energy resources that were limited by the fuel (oil, coal, gas) or regulation (nuclear).
Suddenly, there is no limit. You could build as much solar as you had panels + installers for.
Which really turns future energy on its head. Why not build more forever? And if there's excess, build more energy consumptive industry...