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Re: There's Still a Future for Dirty Oil...
I was just picturing Starving using the solar panels for target practice while he burned the midnight heavy oil...
. This idea of the gift of 2 barrels of very heavy oil or say 2 modern solar panels started me thinking about which would produce energy with the better return and how we might compare them in other ways.
There are obviously much less expensive ways to produce stationary energy with fossil fuel, but I wondered if solar panels could compete with expensive fossil fuel energy like oil sands without subsidy.
Here are some basic assumptions: Oil sands use 25% of their productive energy during the manufacture process. Solar panels use about 5% of their productive energy during manufacture, (both numbers are approximate but well documented). If we agree with this, we'll raise wholesale cost of oil sands by about 20% to account for this difference.
The BTU value of a barrel of oil is ~5.6MM
The BTU value of a 225 watt solar panel is ~17MM
A barrel of oil can deliver it's energy almost instantly
A solar panel can deliver it's energy very slowly over 30 years
The cost of a barrel of bitumen based oil is $65 plus 20% = $78
The cost of a 225 watt solar panel is $675
A barrel of oil delivers about 1/3 the energy of a 225 watt solar panel.
A solar panel costs about 8.6X as much as a barrel of oil
Damn you oil, you're still about 3X less expensive. I am an eco-fraud...:rolleyes:.
Of course, 10 years ago it was 30X less expensive. Maybe I'll give this solar thing a couple more years.
Originally posted by GRG55
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I was going to send him two barrels of bitumen and a couple of wicks, so he could get off the grid and enrage his "eco-terrorist" neighbours all at the same time...
. This idea of the gift of 2 barrels of very heavy oil or say 2 modern solar panels started me thinking about which would produce energy with the better return and how we might compare them in other ways.There are obviously much less expensive ways to produce stationary energy with fossil fuel, but I wondered if solar panels could compete with expensive fossil fuel energy like oil sands without subsidy.
Here are some basic assumptions: Oil sands use 25% of their productive energy during the manufacture process. Solar panels use about 5% of their productive energy during manufacture, (both numbers are approximate but well documented). If we agree with this, we'll raise wholesale cost of oil sands by about 20% to account for this difference.
The BTU value of a barrel of oil is ~5.6MM
The BTU value of a 225 watt solar panel is ~17MM
A barrel of oil can deliver it's energy almost instantly
A solar panel can deliver it's energy very slowly over 30 years
The cost of a barrel of bitumen based oil is $65 plus 20% = $78
The cost of a 225 watt solar panel is $675
A barrel of oil delivers about 1/3 the energy of a 225 watt solar panel.
A solar panel costs about 8.6X as much as a barrel of oil
Damn you oil, you're still about 3X less expensive. I am an eco-fraud...:rolleyes:.
Of course, 10 years ago it was 30X less expensive. Maybe I'll give this solar thing a couple more years.
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