Thiel: Techno-Economic Analysis Helps Early-Stage Startups Prioritize Engineering Resources
Dr. Greg Thiel · Climate tech startups need strong techno-economic analysis (TEA) · Oct 5, 2023 · at 6:26
Dr. Greg Thiel, technical diligence expert at Energy Impact Partners, explains why climate tech founders should build techno-economic analysis models beyond just satisfying investors.
0:00 / 0:20exact quote · 20.1s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“And I think by exploring, you know, maybe A level further in terms of sensitivities and limits in the model, it helps you figure out what matters, what design decisions matter to affordability and hitting the customer value prop and which don't. And when you're a small company and you've got limited engineering and scientific resources, it helps you prioritize.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Dr. Greg Thiel
Thiel: New grid storage must hit $100-$150/kWh to beat 2030s LFP
“So I think that the numbers that we've landed on in, in our work are sort of in the hundred to 150 dollars per kilowatt hour total installed system cost. If you can see a path, a pretty clear path to those numbers, with your system, then you probably have a pr…”
Thiel: Even at $1/kg hydrogen, synthetic methane feedstock costs $10/MMBtu
“In the best case, you need something like half a kilo of hydrogen per kilo of methane. And so if we looked into a, to a wonderful version of the future where we, Get to the kind of magic one dollar per kilogram hydrogen mark that, you know, is, is on the DOE's…”
Thiel: Synthetic fuels require $1/kg hydrogen and $100–$200/ton CO2
“And you know that, you know, for a fuel, if you want to get anywhere close to economically competitive, you know, subsidies decide you have to have hydrogen that's going to be on the order of a dollar per kilogram, and you have to have CO two that's in that 10…”
Thiel: Synthetic fuels require $1/kg hydrogen and $100-$200/ton CO₂ to compete
“For a fuel, if you want to get anywhere close to economically competitive, you know, subsidies decide, you have to have hydrogen that's going to be on the order of a dollar per kilogram, and you have to have CO₂ that's in that 100 to 200 dollar per ton range, …”
Thiel: New grid storage must hit $100-$150/kWh to compete in 2030s
“The numbers that we've landed on in, in our work are sort of in the hundred to 150 dollars per kilowatt hour total installed system cost. If you can see a path, I mean, a pretty clear path to those numbers with your system, then you probably have a pretty good…”
Thiel: Small-scale green Haber-Bosch struggles with synthesis loop scaling
“So, so at the end of the day, if you're trying to scale down a Greenhaber Bosch plant, maybe maybe you'll be able to do okay on the core parts of the electrolysis side of the equation here, the cells and stuff and so forth. But the ammonia synthesis loop and t…”