4 ms·
> Power hungry industries will become seasonal or migratory too. Electricity will have to become orders of magnitude more expensive for this to be true. After
by dahfizz 4y ago
> Power hungry industries will become seasonal or migratory too.
Electricity will have to become orders of magnitude more expensive for this to be true. After you've bought the building, the smelter, and the guy to operate it, the cost of electricity to smelt aluminum is negligible. Its never going to make sense to leave all that idle if the cost of electricity bumps up a few cents.
- bluGill 4y agoI work for a.company that melts steel. Cost of electric is a very large issue. We pay workers extra to work overnight shifts when electric is cheaper and shut down during the day. We also shutdown for annual maintenance in December when Christmas lights raise electric costs.. not one that melts metal, but I know one plant runs 5 months and does maintenance the other 7. Note, the above is as of 10 years ago. Now wind provides most electric so hours may be different to account for that.
- erikerikson 4y agoWe have Nucor in West Seattle and rumor has it running 24/7/365+ because the cost of shutdown/startup is too high. I've seen steel coming out is there everything I've driven by regardless of hour.
- londons_explore 4y agoSeattle has far more stable power costs because they have lots of hydro. Hydro has a fixed amount of water they can generate energy from, but can do it daytime, nighttime or weekends - whenever the users want the power they can have it.
- londons_explore 4y ago> After you've bought the building, the smelter, and the guy to operate it, the cost of electricity to smelt aluminum is negligible. Electricity is the biggest expense in aluminium production. There is a reason it is nicknamed "solid electricity".