90s glam hair rock bands all had a hit ballad, despite rock tempo wall of main sound. Then there’s Extreme. “More than words” is one of the best ballads of the time. They had the glam hair look. The rest of their music is jazz fusion funk. Decent, but no real hits/bangers.
Making Ammonia from these systems is over 100x cheaper than H2 electrolysis even though they include an H2 electrolysis inside. 100x difference alone in onsite storage needs. A trailer with high pressure tube tanks is 20x more expensive than liquid ammonia/propane trailer, and it holds 5x less H2 even at 700 bar. transporting the 700 bar (instead of 350 which is still the same trailer cost/kg of H2) is needed to move enough energy at a time.
So direct H2 systems simply need a pipeline dump. 50bar H2 pipelines are much cheaper than 200bar, including the compressors to power them. With pure H2, purification and compression requirements make it more capital intensive than Ammonia production.
As a result, all the benefit of wind and solar goes to the people owning the generation capacity, rather than retail utility customers.
The perversion still in a way encourages more renewables if “generation capacity” is what keeps the profit. However, the actual profit I believe is kept by the utility. ie. all retail customers pay that (maximum) clearance price, while utility pays actual individual supply bids.
Nebraska was chosen primarily because it has a great mix of wind and solar potential where solar alone is more profitable than corn for ethanol by 6x.
For Phoenix area, outside by 50km to get nearly free land, H2 production is still viable if in a closed loop with 2nd datacenter. IRR even higher (no wind). figures scaled to reflect actual saturation of H2 pipelines, but include a water return line in same trench.
**Infrastructure Report: The
Phoenix “Solar-H₂ Maximum Efficiency” Corridor
**
Model: 260 MW Utility-Scale Solar + Triple-4" H₂ Pipeline + 100% Water Neutrality
Location: Arizona Desert (50 km Perimeter of Phoenix) | Land Strategy: Desert Lease ($10/acre)
This report optimizes the subterranean energy bank for the Southwest, utilizing the desert’s superior year-round solar yield and a high-efficiency water-recycling loop. By moving into low-cost desert land ($10/acre), the project maximizes its “Infinite Money Loop” potential, providing “firm” 24/7 power to an 180 MW industrial cluster.
1. Infrastructure Specifications (180 MW Balanced Load)
The system is designed for 90 MW of local baseload and 90 MW of remote baseload (50 km away). The 50 km trench is fully saturated, utilizing all three 4" hydrogen lines to their physical 30 MW transfer limits.
| Component | Capacity | Unit Cost | Total CAPEX |
|---|---|---|---|
| ** Solar Field ** | 1.17 GW | $500 / kW | $585,000,000 |
| BESS (Battery) | 4.68 GWh | $80 / kWh | $374,400,000 |
| Electrolyzer Plant | 360 MW | $300 / kW | $108,000,000 |
| 50 km Trench (3xH₂, 1xWater, Fiber) | 50 km | Fixed | $19,450,000 |
| Total Project CAPEX | — | — | $1,086,850,000 |
2. Revenue & Storage Assumptions
3. The IRR Analysis: The “Infinite Loop” Confirmed
Baseline Performance (Unsubsidized)
The IRA “Federal Turbo” (Stacked Credits)
4. Financing: The 0-Down “Free Money” Reality
The massive 42.6% IRR relative to a 5.0% cost of debt creates a self-liquidating asset class safer than US Treasuries.
5. Highlights: The Infinite Renewables Benefit
Summary: At the $10/acre desert lease point, your “Subterranean Energy Bank” is the most capital-efficient infrastructure project in the Western U.S. It prints ~$300M in annual cash on a ~$1B asset, secured by physical molecules and AI-demand contracts.
frustrating finding out if this is useful or not. 179kj/kg is about 50wh, bad. Thermoelectric being at 8% tops efficiency also means you get out about 4wh per kg, and so terrible storage.
0.65v guessing from other thermoelectric data sheets would be 0.65w/sq.inch, but that is close to 1100w/sq. meter. At about 30C hot-cold difference. But it will take a long time to heat up if it takes a long time to cool. Still that seems good power per area. 1000w/sq.meter is solar input, so that peak power would be after a good 8 hours of sun input
To be useful they need to make specific claims about power/sq.meter, and power per full day. I’m just guessing from above, but this could be about 1kg per sq.inch, and 1.6tons per square meter.
The same power/day could be generated from a sheet of black metal, which would be much cheaper. A dark metal tank of water would serve the same battery feature, or parabolic mirror onto a water pipe, feeding into a water tank.
thermoelectric devices per square meter are much more expensive than PV solar
They appear to all be PV (electric) panels. The best value for this time and area.
Also the power balland bands all had similar singing styles Motley Crue/Axel Rose screaming out tone that you knew were part of the generic rock genre. In addition to the ballads having big rock climaxes. More than words is like a Simon and Garfunkle song, even if rest of catalogue pretty loud.