As it should be, because portability is a huge advantage. When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done. — John M. Keynes
As it should be, because portability is a huge advantage.
No, certainly not.
Not at this price once you factor conversion losses in portable applications, 70% to 80% for oil vs. ~20% for a battery/electrical engine set.
Cost of 1 kWh of portable energy actually delivered, assuming 300 recharges a year and equivalent "stored" in gasoline:
Assuming a 10 years system lifetime, the cost of storage has to be at 562.5 €/kWh delivered, 450 €/kWh stored (20% losses) to break even. Usual trade-off, pay up-front vs. hurt later.
Except where weight is a very strong limit (planes, duh) or daily recharges are cumbersome (long haul trucks), batteries are getting in that area.
For reference, that sep 2007 article (see last page) gives the following costs:
That's 800€/kWh stored and available, as of today.
Not there yet but not that far off.
And it's a very rough calculation I used above, bulk industrial pre-tax vs. bulk industrial pre-tax. I'm not factoring the ICE cost for oil, nor efficiency gains from regenerative breaking in EV, nor even transformation and distribution costs and taxes, not to say a word of the geo-strategic costs of buying oil and of the assorted trade deficit, the health and environmental cost of ICE emissions, etc. And I'm not even factoring the worth of being able to tell the Saudis to fuck off in hell : priceless.
So, yes, oil has overshot. Badly. It's on its way out and not because we're running out of it. Facts, selfish little bastards. They don't even care about your feelings.
$40 to $50/kWh for lead-acid.
This seems very cheap for what's really rather a nasty technology.
Is that an installation cost, or a total lifecycle cost including sensible disposal?
And yes, it's really cheap for industrial type batteries - submarines, fixed back-up batteries, etc - but it's also very heavy and cumbersome with the liquid electrolyte, etc. It's just there for reference and it's inapplicable to small applications.
It's also very sensitive to lead cost. Assume ~15 kg Pb/kWh. Lead is on a huge ramp right-now from $500/$1000/tonne over the past two decades to nearly $3,000/tonne this year, AFAIK in large part because of demand for electrical mopeds in China.
http://www.ilzsg.org/static/stocksandprices.aspx?from=2 Facts, selfish little bastards. They don't even care about your feelings.
