4 ms·

These articles about "running out of garbage" make it sound like a great thing, but it seems to me that it's a big disadvantage of any kind of waste-to-energy s

These articles about "running out of garbage" make it sound like a great thing, but it seems to me that it's a big disadvantage of any kind of waste-to-energy scheme. I mean, the concept is that you spend a ton of money making these power generation facilities that do waste-to-energy, and then that cost is partially defrayed by selling the energy. But if you don't actually have enough garbage to run the facility, then it is that much less cost-efficient. It implies that something has gone badly wrong. Why did you build so many facilities?

return0 13y ago
I wonder if they even cost much, after all a furnace is not some terribly new technology. In Copenhagen they seem to have excess money to turn it into a giant smoking ski slope: http://www.archdaily.com/339893/bigs-waste-to-energy-plant-breaks-ground-breaks-schemas/ http://www.archdaily.com/339893/bigs-waste-to-energy-plant-b...
- aetherson 13y ago
  A brief web search didn't come up with any cost estimates of the Swedish facilities, but this page lists the cost of a singaporean one at about $500 million. http://www.keppelseghers.com/en/content.aspx?sid=3028 http://www.keppelseghers.com/en/content.aspx?sid=3028 It's possible that that's drastically different than the Swedish ones, but I fundamentally do not believe that any power generation facility is a terribly cheap facility to build or maintain. If you do, I suggest that that is an extraordinary claim that requires extraordinary evidence.
  - nixy 13y ago
    One of the newest waste burning plants in Sweden, Block 5[1], cost $150mm (SEK 1bn) to construct in 2005-2006. [1] http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uppsala_Block_5 http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uppsala_Block_5
bjornsing 13y ago
No worries, we have money to burn.
tsotha 13y ago
Yes, this is the problem with cellulosic ethanol as well. Right now, when we just discard corn husks and such, it seems like a no-brainer to use them as a free input to an ethanol process. But if you actually scale it up you'll run out of source material pretty quickly.

return0 13y ago

I wonder if they even cost much, after all a furnace is not some terribly new technology. In Copenhagen they seem to have excess money to turn it into a giant smoking ski slope: http://www.archdaily.com/339893/bigs-waste-to-energy-plant-breaks-ground-breaks-schemas/ http://www.archdaily.com/339893/bigs-waste-to-energy-plant-b...

aetherson 13y ago
A brief web search didn't come up with any cost estimates of the Swedish facilities, but this page lists the cost of a singaporean one at about $500 million. http://www.keppelseghers.com/en/content.aspx?sid=3028 http://www.keppelseghers.com/en/content.aspx?sid=3028 It's possible that that's drastically different than the Swedish ones, but I fundamentally do not believe that any power generation facility is a terribly cheap facility to build or maintain. If you do, I suggest that that is an extraordinary claim that requires extraordinary evidence.
- nixy 13y ago
  One of the newest waste burning plants in Sweden, Block 5[1], cost $150mm (SEK 1bn) to construct in 2005-2006. [1] http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uppsala_Block_5 http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uppsala_Block_5

bjornsing 13y ago

No worries, we have money to burn.

tsotha 13y ago

Yes, this is the problem with cellulosic ethanol as well. Right now, when we just discard corn husks and such, it seems like a no-brainer to use them as a free input to an ethanol process. But if you actually scale it up you'll run out of source material pretty quickly.