COST OF ENERGY:

ITEM SOURCE Cost
NETWORK ELECTRICTY My 2007/02/06 PG&E bill 0.032 $/MJ, or ~0.115 $/kWh (I use about 53kWh per month)
Car gas (octane) Wikipedia 0.022 $/MJ, or ~0.08 $/kWh
AAA duracell (Alkaline) allaboutbatteries.com/Target.com 221 $/MJ, or 800 $/kWh
Alkaline batteries allaboutbatteries.com 53 $/MJ, or 190 $/kWh
Lead-acid batteries allaboutbatteries.com 47 $/MJ, or 170 $/kWh
Lithium-ion batteries allaboutbatteries.com 1186 $/MJ, or 4270 $/kWh
NiCd batteries allaboutbatteries.com 417 $/MJ, or 1500 $/kWh

  • Cessna 172: 5.8 km/$, or 3.6 statute miles/$ (5.6 km/l avgas)
  • Toyota Celica 1992: 12.3 km/$, or 7.7 miles/$, or 13 cents/sm (using 25 MPG, or 10.5 km/l)
    Best gas prices and location: MAPQUEST

    SOLAR CELLS:

    From Wikipedia: In ~2005, commercial solar cells (5 to 19% energy conversion efficiency) cost about .3 (regions of high solar irradiation) to .6 (central Europe) $/kWh. The cost of electricity worldwide is between 0.04 and .5 $/kWh. The article says that GaAs multijunction cells (40% efficiency - still in laboratory) will produce up to 2.6W over an area of 0.26685 cm², at a cost of 0.08-0.10 $/kWh! Furthermore, the energy payback time of modern cells is 1-4 years, and their lifetime 20-30 years. Pretty good!