The Renewable Revolution Has A Lithium Problem
According to the official narrative: As the global middle class rapidly expands, so too does the worldwide demand for energy and its subsequent carbon footprint.
Global climate change will be one of the greatest, if not the single greatest, challenges of this next century, and one of the few feasible solutions that is generally agreed upon by scientists and politicians alike is a wide-scale transition from the use of traditional fossil fuels to renewable energy resources.
Around the world, there is a race among researchers to more efficiently and cost-effectively implement renewable energy as a long-term solution to global climate change, and there is even a concerted effort to switch Europe’s energy consumption to 100 percent renewable energy as soon as the year 2050.
However, even if Europe achieves this target and takes the lead as the rest of the world follows down a path toward 100 percent renewable energy, we still would not be living in a completely sustainable, green energy utopia – there is a considerable downside to this seemingly perfect plan.
Even renewable energy relies on certain decidedly non-renewable resources. Even the eco-friendliest solutions such as solar panels can’t be made without the use of finite rare earth elements. Batteries, too, are completely dependent on finite earth-sourced materials for their fabrication.
What’s more, China currently has an overwhelming monopoly on a great number of these rare earth elements (although not all are as rare as this label implies). This means that in a renewable energy-based world, energy security could become a major issue. In addition to rare earth elements, there are myriad other non-renewable materials used in the production of renewable energy. Currently, the one that has everyone talking is lithium.
Lithium is an essential component to many kinds of batteries, thanks to its lightweight and highly reactive properties. This makes lithium an essential element in the renewable energy sector because, in order for renewable energy to work on a grand scale, massive amounts of energy storage potential are paramount. Even when the sun isn’t shining on solar panels and the wind isn’t turning turbines, energy demand stays constant. On top of being a key component of energy storage, lithium is also an essential ingredient in the batteries that power both hybrid and electric vehicles, another big part of the plan for a sustainable energy future.
If all the conventionally-fueled cars in the world were replaced with electric cars overnight, the global supply of lithium would be completely depleted in just approximately fifty years.
Yes, this is purely hypothetical; about three million electric cars are currently in use globally–just a drop in the automotive ocean. That being said, that number is projected to skyrocket over the next decade, reaching a global fleet of approximately 125 million by 2030.
While both electric vehicles and renewable energy resources are still very far away from being widespread enough to threaten the world’s lithium stores in the near future, lithium itself is not really the point. It’s just one small problem that exemplifies a larger issue with renewable resources–they are not completely renewable, and we still haven’t discovered the technology to get around that fact.
This is not to say that renewable resources are a waste of research and development, or that riding fossil fuels into the ground is the answer. What it does mean is that there is no time like the present to start planning for how we will recycle and replenish elements like lithium, or–even better–search for energy alternatives that don’t depend on finite natural resources–before we arrive to a stage where we are dependent on a resource that’s vanishing in front of our eyes–sound familiar?
Authored by Haley Zaremba via Oilprice.com,
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Joseph Olson
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Photovoltaics is a crude, one time, one way molecular erosion process that never produces the investment energy necessary to mine, refine, manufacture and distribute these unsustainable eco trinkets. The same with bird shredding wind and biofuels. All chemical storage batteries form DENDRITES from impurities, which limit recharging to 400 cycles.
“Green Prince of Darkness” > FauxScienceSlayer
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Koen Robersscheuten
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That one is easily addressed : electronics switch of consumption. As lithium lowers its voltage while discharging, we know whento stop. Some cell batteries like some 16850 have circuitry that prevents this deep discharge.
Charge only 1 in 10 times to 100 %, the other 9 times only to 80%
Wonder, wonder, your Tesla will exactly propose this.
NEVER let the battery go over 30 centigrade, whilst charging or discharging.
The airconditoning in a Tesla, and any other electric car will exactly do this : keep not only passengers cool but also batteries.
If you follow the above guidelines 4500+ recharges are possible. That i why Tesla gives 8 year battery warranty. That is good for 1.3 million miles.
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Hans Schreuder
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Well said Joseph, proving once again that stupidity has no limits.
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Chris Marcil
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How so Hans? Back up your comment.
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geran
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“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” — Albert Einstein
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Wally
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I wonder who fraudster Einstein stole that from.
Exposing the Real Albert Einstein: https://principia-scientific.com/exposing-the-real-albert-einstein
Albert Einstein was a Fraud: http://coconutrevival.com/?p=5656
and:
Einstein, plagiarist of the century: https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/esp_einstein.htm
and:
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Robert Beatty
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Why not keep it simple? We just spent US$90m for a 100 MW Tesla battery for South Australia to back up their wind mills and stabilise their fickle generation. The battery is charged from the grid supply.
In Queensland we have a 500 MW pumped storage installation, which cost $245m when commissioned in ’90s and uses off peak power for input. So if we need to store wind and solar energy why not use the power to pump water to an elevated storage? That way the available power becomes part of long life supply to “base load” power, and does not mess with the grid supply, as happens when directly connected.
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Koen Robersscheuten
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I presume the battery system has a waaay shorter latency than the water storage sytem. Important if you want to stabilize sudden peaks. Before the enormous rotors of the turbines provided this peak amortization by the inertia of the turbines.
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Robert Beatty
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Hi Koen, you are correct that battery latency is shortest. The main problem seems to be there is such a huge quantity of directly connected renewables in the system – up to 50%. Wind and solar variations cause supply fluctuations, or surges. The battery kicks in to flatten the surge.
However, if the renewables were used to store hydro water, the surge would disappear and the supply then becomes base load stable.
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jerry krause
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Hi Wally,
Interesting comment. I have a question: Were you the first to propose that E = mc^2?
At least Einstein was honest as he is said to have also written: “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”
No, I am not going to waste my time looking at your links to find out who was the first..
Have a good day, Jerry:
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