[Avamander]

> Majority of people and countries in the world do not deem ROI to be the sole or even primary driver for investment

It's partially that, other part is that we aren't really pricing in all the externalities of everything out there. So it's not that "there's no ROI", it's that "we aren't factoring things in the ROI calculation".

So while a heat battery might not make a huge profit, the ability to burn less fuel (less air pollution, less waste, etc), to offer redundancy and stability, the know-how and work it creates, that is all valuable as well.

[hliyan]

Externalities can (and should) be priced in by taxes that offest negative externalities (e.g. carbon emissions, pollution). Unfortunately, legislative bodies that have to decide on taxes have a much cozier relationship with industry than they do with those who must endure the effects of negative externalities (the general population).

[ta1243]

Put a carbon tax on fuel in a western country and you end up with an unhappy population who pay more money in tax. Personally I'd distribute the revenue as a UBI which would mean the most polluting would be worse off but the average person would be better off.

The people who would mostly benefit from reduction in emissions - especially in the short term - are those in other countries. It's not going to be Finland suffering the most from doubling of the cost of food from failed harvests, it's going to be massive failures in rice harvests in south east asia. Finns will always be able to outcompete the average Cambodian when buying food.

One of the costs of emissions to western countries - say Spain - is increased bad weather - more frequent storms, fires etc. All fairly small stuff compared with mass starvation or water shortages though. That starvation leads to another problem -- increased migration pressure.

But those costs are going to be borne anyway. Even if Spain stopped emitting CO2, it wouldn't make an ounce of difference. International agreements have failed time after time to curb emissions.

The main benefit of renewable energy for a given country isn't the reduction in emissions, it's the increase in energy independence - no need to import gas or oil from unstable countries.

[strken]

It's possible and often desirable to calculate the estimated impact of externalities, positive and negative. Human lives are (in)famously given a monetary value by environmental agencies to enable this calculation.

I think the more likely explanation is that this is a pilot project by a clean energy startup, it intentionally operates at a loss because it's RnD rather than mature tech, everyone involved is okay with this, and the company doesn't want to release its modelling of future ROI because that's valuable proprietary data and giving it away to clients and competitors is dumb.