MSimon wrote:Aero wrote:At $700k - $800 k each and 100KW, the cost is $7-$8 /watt. With 50% subsidy (state and federal) costs compete with solar. Set at your own facility there is no "delivery charge" in the cost of the electricity so your cost is capital and natural gas. Fuel is converted to electricity at over 50% efficiency, whatever that means. I need a number like mpg, Natural gas costs X dollars per cu-ft, then electricity costs Y cents per kWh.
The data sheet, here.
http://www.bloomenergy.com/products/data-sheet/
1000 BTUs/cu ft. = .2931 Kwh/cu ft. At 50% efficiency .1465 Kwh/cu ft.
at $15/1000 cuft = $1.02 per Kwh so that is residential. Commercial is about 1/2 that price.
Local gas company (Gas South) is selling a therm (approx. 100 cu ft) of natural gas for 81 cents, or $8.10/1000 cu ft. A therm=100,000 BTU.
This creates 100kw for .661 MMBTU (million BTU)
So we're looking (add 5, carry the 1, divide by 42...) at a cost of 6.7 therms for 100kw. $5.43 for 100kw, or 5.5 cents per kw/hr, unless I've totally fubared the numbers.
Georgia Power, for winter home use has a base charge of $7.50/month, 4.6 cents per kWh for the first 650kWh, then it drops to 3.95 cents per kWh.
Summer - Same base and first 650kWh cost, then it's 7.65 cents per kWh for the next 350, then over 100kWh it goes to 7.88 cents per kWh.
For a large business - there's a base charge of $16.75, and the first 3000kWh go for 10.85 cents, with the price dropping the more you use.
Ow. I can see why the Bloom Box would be damned attractive for businesses. I'm not so sure about home use - it'd really depend on the cost of natural gas in your locality and the price per kWh your electric company charges.
Or my math could be completely off and I'm comparing apples to kumquats divided by mangos...
(On review...) In case you're wondering, I rounded up on all calculated costs. 5.43 became 5.5 and so on... And I'm probably making a pretty dumb assumption here, that a generator with 100KW output sucking down .661MMBTU/hr can directly divide down through therm pricing to a calculated price per kWh. I'm not figuring in generator costs, but it seems to me if you're using industrial pricing for electricity, you'd recoup your costs in pretty short order...
When opinion and reality conflict - guess which one is going to win in the long run.