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The applications can be any process which converts electricity into another usable form of energy. Some we do already, like aluminium smelting and steel manufac
by leoedin 6y ago
The applications can be any process which converts electricity into another usable form of energy. Some we do already, like aluminium smelting and steel manufacture. Some we have the technology to do, but don't currently do because the economics don't work - water desalination, hydrogen production through electrolysis, electro-chemical synthesis of ammonia.
We currently make hydrogen and ammonia from methane - there's no financially viable way to make it from electricity which is generated from fossil fuels (and therefore always costs more). Once that electricity becomes free or negative, it completely changes the economics.
- runeks 6y ago> The applications can be any process which converts electricity into another usable form of energy. You’re ignoring capital costs. Try to think of all the things you know what consume electricity and compare the price of that thing to the cost of the electricity it consumes. Specifically, free electricity is only useful if the cost of electricity is a high percentage of the cost of the machine that consumes it. E.g. building a $10M machine that normally consumes $100k worth of electricity in its lifetime doesn’t make sense just because the electricity becomes free (or even priced at negative $100k). You’d still be spending 99% on the machine itself, thus saving — at most — 1% due to cheaper electricity.