3 ms·
Even if we had access to free electricity, wouldn't it still be cheaper to utilize existing petroleum infrastructure? I mean, until the reserves are depleted
by worldsayshi 6y ago
Even if we had access to free electricity, wouldn't it still be cheaper to utilize existing
petroleum infrastructure?
I mean, until the reserves are depleted the energy is basically free, we just need to pump it up and refine it.
(Then again, solar power is basically "free", we just need to catch it and store it... so my 2nd paragraph is maybe kind of dumb.)
- jeffbee 6y agoNot when you count the external cost of taking it out of the ground and putting it into the atmosphere. If you had the renewable energy surplus necessary to do it, you'd make as much liquid hydrocarbon as you could, and pump it back into the ground.
- carbonguy 6y agoThe sibling comment from jeffbee is essentially correct, depending on which part of the "petroleum infrastructure" you're referring to in your comment: the price of extracting and burning fossil hydrocarbon fuels does not reflect the cost of their externalities, primarily climate change driven by CO2 emissions. However, you are right in the sense that taking advantage of our current hydrocarbon distribution infrastructure would save capital costs versus switching to, e.g., an all-hydrogen or all-electric energy infrastructure. The trick is to get those hydrocarbons from non-fossil sources, which is a solved problem from a technical perspective but very much still unsolved from an economic perspective.
- adrianN 6y agoThe German government recently updated its estimate for the societal costs of putting a ton of CO2 into the atmosphere to 195 euros (up from 180 euros a few years ago).