As a guide:
1) thermal to electrical conversion efficiency of 35%, generating 350 Ac
kWs from 1 MW thermal
2) COP 6, feeding 167 kWs of electricity generated back into the input
to generate 1 MW thermal
3) 183 Ac kWs available to be sold (350 Ac kWs generated - 167 Ac kWs
looped back)
4) Total plant cost (thermal and electrical) of $2,500,000 for a 1 MW
thermal plant that produces 183 Ac kW after internal usage / losses
5) 30 year life
6) 5% interest
7) $2 / MWh (thermal) fuel and maintenance cost
we get a LCOE of around $0.065 / Ac kWh. Needs to be more like $0.02 /
Ac kWh to make the massive change needed. To do that
1) the COP needs to be at least 20
2) reducing the loop back Ac kWhs losses to no more than 50 Ac kWs
3) which increases the Ac kWhs to be delivered to the grid to 300 Ac kW
4) the plant cost (including thermal to electrical plant) needs to be no
more than $1.5 / thermal watt at the multi MW size.
Lets see if Defkalion, Leonardo or someone else can achieve that. Then
the world will change because then there is profit and a good ROI to be
made making it change. Sorry to be a cynic but unless everybody in the
chain makes money it will not happen. It will be business as usual.
