[dmurray]

To illustrate this: aluminium costs about $2.25 per kilo wholesale [0], so that's about 4c per kWh or $40 per MWh.

There aren't many places where electricity can be produced close to that. Iceland is one and it's unsurprisingly the world's major bauxite importer and aluminium exporter. Wholesale electricity there goes for around $42/MWh [1].

OK, the smelters can do a bit better than the average wholesale rate, but not much - Iceland's electricity supply is not highly variable like solar or wind.

So the rest of the expenses of the process - mining, shipping half way around the world twice, capital costs - are all basically free compared to the electricity cost.

[0] https://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/aluminum-pri...

[1] https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/opinions/time-for-an-i...