Timewise capex development of e-SCP core plants between 2028 and 2070. The capex in 2028 and 2030 are for the first small-scale and full-scale plants, respectively. The capex decline is achieved by economies of scale for a 10-fold increase in the benchmark plant capacity to 164.2 kt SCP a -1 . The size of the benchmark full-scale plant remains constant from 2030 to 2070, and the capex decline is achieved by the impact of the learning curve as the historical cumulative installed capacity increases. The historical cumulative installed capacity exceeds the operational capacity beyond 2060, which is due to the additional capacity required for the replacement of retired plants at the end of their lifetime. The e-SCP core plant reinstallations beyond 2060 could be at old sites as brownfield installations, which could further lower the capex. See Supplementary Fig. 3 for a comparable diagram based on total SCP content.
