unimportant/misc/industrial_civ_numbers.html

2025-04-28

Industrial civ numbers

Disclaimer

• written quickly
• numbers are all bad estimates

Basic numbers of industrial civilisation that I wish I was taught in school instead of having to figure out myself in adulthood. The point is not to memorise the numbers, it is to get an overall picture that is quantitative and to be able to do these calculations on-the-fly. I'm sure this gets taught in college as energy economics or something, just disappointed I was not taught.

Coal power plant

• Electricity cost for consumer : $0.10 / kWh
• Bituminous coal : 2.2 kWh / kg, $110 / metric tonne => $0.05 / kWh
• Coal power plant construction cost : $3k / kW, 50 year lifespan, 50% efficiency => $0.014 / kWh
• Coal power plant operating cost : $0.01 / kWh labour + $0.006 / kWh maintenance labour + $0.004 / kWh - maintenance materials + $0.005 / kWh ash pond, scrubbers, etc = $0.025 / kWh

Cost of coal is primary cost for cost of electricity

Coal mine

• Bituminous coal price : $110 / metric tonne
• Thermal coal mine construction cost : $50 / (metric tonne / year), 30 year lifespan => $1.67 / metric tonne
• Thermal coal mine operating cost : $35 / metric tonne
  • Of which, labour cost : 5 metric tonnes / worker-hour, $25 / worker-hour => $5 / metric tonne
• Thermal coal transportation cost : $10-$50 / metric tonne
  • Train operating cost : $0.10 / metric tonne / km, 100-1000 km
  • Trains are typically run using diesel (see petroleum refinery stats below)

Cost of transporting coal is the primary cost for cost of coal

(I need to double-check this with someone. Main doubt I have is that electricity tranmission loss is 7% / 1000 km whereas calorific value loss for coal transport by train is atleast 30% / 1000 km. Why is it assumed cheaper to transport coal than transport electricity? Typically coal power plants are built closer to electricity demand centres and far from coal mines.)

Steel plant

• Steel cost : $1000 / metric tonne
• Steel plant construction cost : $700 / (metric tonne / year), 40 year lifespan => $17.50 / metric tonne
• Steel plant operating cost : $900-1000 / metric tonne
  • Operating cost, materials : $600 / metric tonne
  • Operating cost, electricity: $200 / metric tonne
  • Operating cost, operating labour + maintence labour: $200 / metric tonne
• Assuming BF-BOF route, materials required per metric tonne steel
  • iron ore : 1.37 metric tonne iron ore / metric tonne steel, $100 / metric tonne iron ore => $137 / metric tonne steel
  • metallurgical coal : 0.78 metric tonne coal / metric tonne steel, $120 / metric tonne metallurgical coal => $93 / metric tonne steel
  • limestone (quicklime): 0.27 metric tonne quicklime / metric tonne steel, $150 / metric tonne quicklime => $40 / metric tonne steel
  • recycled steel : 0.12 metric tonne

(These numbers don't add up to $600 / metric tonne. unsure why)

Cost of iron ore and coal are the primary costs for cost of steel

Iron mine

To do

Petroleum refinery

To do

Oil rig

To do

Energy mix

https://ourworldindata.org/energy-mix

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