Climate Tech Unit Economics & TEA Modeler
Demonstrate your pathway to cost parity. Hardware unit economics dictate survival. Model your green premium. Calculate levelized cost of energy, green hydrogen LCOH, and carbon removal unit economics with CapEx amortization, clean power sensitivities, and Wright’s Law scaling curves.
Plant Sizing, Overnight Capital & Financing
Define nameplate annual output, total installed facility CapEx, operating lifetime, and financing hurdle rate (WACC).
Variable OpEx, Power Price & Learning Rate
Enter clean power prices, process energy intensity, raw consumables, and technology scale learning rates.
Equivalent to $0.040/kWh renewable PPA.
Thermal + electrical power consumed per unit produced.
Raw materials, sorbent replacement, or chemicals per unit.
Routine plant O&M, labor, site lease, and property insurance.
Annual operational uptime (accounting for maintenance downtime).
Cost reduction per doubling of cumulative installed capacity.
Target commercial:$95.00/tCO2
49% of total levelized cost
26% of total levelized cost
Fixed O&M (20%) + Feedstock (5%)
FOAK-to-NOAK Learning Curve (Wright's Law Scaling)
Projects cost reductions as cumulative deployed manufacturing capacity scales from Pilot to Commercial plant.
Electricity Price Sensitivity Curve ($20/MWh to $100/MWh)
Shows how Levelized Cost varies as clean power PPA prices shift across different regional grids.
Need an investor-ready 3-statement financial model & TEA for Series A?
SlickBooks builds venture-grade techno-economic analyses, CapEx depreciation schedules, and DOE loan guarantee models for deeptech climate startups.
Why Venture Investors Demand a Rigorous Techno-Economic Analysis (TEA)
Unlike software companies where gross margins hit 80% on day one, deeptech and climate hardware startups scale through physical infrastructure:
1. Levelized Cost Parity
Investors require verified unit cost models proving when output undercuts incumbent fossil alternatives. Model your green premium. Know your cost floor. Demonstrating levelized cost parity accelerates project equity.
2. Surviving the FOAK Valley
First-Of-A-Kind commercial plants carry heavy overnight engineering costs. CapEx crushes uncalibrated startups. Compress overnight capital expenditure. Detailed sensitivity modeling demonstrates unamortized expense compression as production doubles.
3. Power Sensitivity Modeling
Electricity accounts for up to 60% of operating expense in direct air capture. Power prices drive margins. Track every kilowatt hour. Modeling sensitivity to clean power purchase agreements is vital for project finance.
Methodology & Published Benchmark Sources
Capital recovery factor matters. Wright’s Law compounds advantages. All calculation logic and default scaling curves in this tool are calibrated directly against published institutional techno-economic literature:
- Direct Air Capture: NREL and National Academies TEA methodology on solid/liquid sorbent systems ($100/tCO2 target).
- Green Hydrogen: IEA and US DOE Hydrogen Shot technical benchmark guidelines ($2.00/kg target by 2030).
- Capital Recovery Factor (CRF): Standard discounted cash flow annuity formulation based on WACC and facility design life.
- Wright’s Law Learning Rates: Historical empirical clean energy learning rates (12% to 18% per cumulative doubling).
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about climate techno-economic modeling.
What is a Techno-Economic Assessment (TEA) in climate tech?
A Techno-Economic Assessment is an engineering-grounded financial framework that evaluates the commercial viability of physical climate technologies. Hardware unit economics dictate survival. Know your cost floor. It links capital expenditures, fixed operating costs, energy intensity, and feedstock yields to calculate the levelized cost per unit of output.
How is Levelized Cost of Production (LCOx) calculated?
Levelized Cost annualizes total installed CapEx using a Capital Recovery Factor based on facility design life and discount rate. Capital recovery factor matters. Divide annualized CapEx by expected output. Fixed OpEx and variable electricity costs are added directly to establish your baseline green premium.
What is Wright’s Law and how does it apply to FOAK scaling?
Wright’s Law states that for every cumulative doubling of deployment capacity, unit costs decrease by an empirical learning rate between 12% and 18%. Scale lowers unit costs. Wright's Law compounds advantages. This models how expensive First-Of-A-Kind demonstration plants compress toward commercial Nth-Of-A-Kind parity.
Why does CapEx dominate early-stage climate unit economics?
For First-Of-A-Kind facilities, non-recurring engineering and pilot fabrication expenses are amortized across small initial production runs. CapEx crushes uncalibrated startups. Compress overnight capital expenditure. As deployment scales to megaton or gigawatt volume, annualized CapEx per unit falls by 60% to 80%.
What is the difference between WACC and discount rate in a TEA?
The Weighted Average Cost of Capital represents the blended cost of debt and venture equity required to finance construction. Cost of capital dictates feasibility. Clean records attract investors. High WACC for unproven FOAK assets sharply elevates the Capital Recovery Factor and levelized cost.
How does SlickBooks help climate hardware founders model TEA and CapEx?
SlickBooks delivers end-to-end Financial OS architecture, 3-statement financial models, and CapEx depreciation schedules. Audit-ready books protect runway. Build bankable financial models. We help climate founders prepare investor-grade project finance models for Seed through Series B rounds.
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Stop wrestling with broken spreadsheet formulas. Clean records attract investors. Build bankable financial models. SlickBooks delivers institutional techno-economic models, dynamic CapEx schedules, and investor-ready financial architecture backed by dedicated climate CFOs.