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The capital costs of something like a automobile factory ($500 mil+) pretty much force you to run 24/7. Also, automobiles are labor intensive to produce, so idl
by extrapickles 6y ago
The capital costs of something like a automobile factory ($500 mil+) pretty much force you to run 24/7. Also, automobiles are labor intensive to produce, so idling the workforce alone would cost more than building more power.
Something low capital, low labor and high energy like steel recycling has already shifted to operate when electricity is cheap.
- perfunctory 6y agoIn the current economic environment, yes. But suppose we transitioned into a new economic reality. Imagine that net-zero-carbon global economy is a hard requirement. Imposed by god or something. I guess adjustable demand would be a feasible option then.
- extrapickles 6y agoEven then it might not change the vehicle factory much, as it moves from a high $ capital cost, to a high environmental capital cost that you will want to spread over as many vehicles as possible. The easiest thing to reduce capital costs would be to stop painting vehicles and switch to stainless steel skins as paint is one of the single largest capital expenses in building a car. Downstream suppliers of the plant might change, mainly ones that have a high energy, low capital(either $ or environmental) process.
- cbmuser 6y agoSocialism doesn't work. It has been proven multiple times.