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WHO WILL TELL THE GREENS THERE IS NO BATTERY FAIRY?
Powerline ^ | 01/31/2021 | Steven Hayward

Posted on 01/31/2021 10:41:59 AM PST by DFG

For the longest while I have been asking, “Where do environmentalists and Democrats think all these batteries for our oil-free transportation fleet are going to come from?” It seems they think there is a Battery Fairy out there somewhere who will magically supply the ginormous battery capacity, and additional supply of electricity to charge them, in order to deliver us to our blessed fossil-fuel-free future.

So kudos to Wired magazine on “The Spiraling Environmental Cost of our Lithium Battery Addiction,” which reminds us that there are, you know, tradeoffs between various kinds of energy systems we might use:

Demand for lithium is increasing exponentially, and it doubled in price between 2016 and 2018. According to consultancy Cairn Energy Research Advisors, the lithium ion industry is expected to grow from 100 gigawatt hours (GWh) of annual production in 2017, to almost 800 GWhs in 2027. . .

But there’s a problem. As the world scrambles to replace fossil fuels with clean energy, the environmental impact of finding all the lithium required to enable that transformation could become a serious issue in its own right. “One of the biggest environmental problems caused by our endless hunger for the latest and smartest devices is a growing mineral crisis, particularly those needed to make our batteries,” says Christina Valimaki an analyst at Elsevier. . .

(Excerpt) Read more at powerlineblog.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: automotive; battery; climate; electricity; energy; green; lithium; pollution; technology
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To: PIF

Good ol’ China Bill. More wages of his getting Chinese campaign donation in ‘95 (John Huang, Charlie Trie, Buddhist Temple, etc.).


121 posted on 01/31/2021 2:55:01 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (What would Johnny E. do?)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks; PIF

‘96.


122 posted on 01/31/2021 2:55:56 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (What would Johnny E. do?)
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To: Jacquerie

Sort of slow on the associated logical extensions, eh?


123 posted on 01/31/2021 2:56:41 PM PST by facedown (Armed in the Heartland)
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To: dfwgator

Yes. God said, “Get your own dirt.”


124 posted on 01/31/2021 3:04:37 PM PST by MayflowerMadam (They HAD to kill somebody for their plan to work. RIP Ashli.)
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To: jonascord

“Democrats don’t do math.”

Math is hard, y’know.


125 posted on 01/31/2021 3:09:03 PM PST by MayflowerMadam (They HAD to kill somebody for their plan to work. RIP Ashli.)
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To: Fiddlstix

126 posted on 01/31/2021 3:09:11 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Bonemaker

Good tagline.


127 posted on 01/31/2021 3:10:18 PM PST by MayflowerMadam (They HAD to kill somebody for their plan to work. RIP Ashli.)
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To: Hootowl99

Yes, there will always be some need for some lithium mining, but peak use of lithium isn’t very far away. Should lithium become more scarce, recycling would become more certain. There’s enough economically viable proven reserves for 4 billion cars.... and enough reserves at higher costs for 80 billion cars.... so I’m not worried about running out of lithium.

Meanwhile, capacitors will probably be the dominant technology within a couple of decades. Right now the challenge is making sure you never instantaneously release enough energy to propel two tons of auto 400 miles. :-)


128 posted on 01/31/2021 3:14:15 PM PST by dangus
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To: StormEye

being deceived by the brainwashing from the university she attends and that I pay for.

“... I PAY for.” Shouldn’t that be the past tense? You’re still paying for brainwashing?


129 posted on 01/31/2021 3:15:58 PM PST by MayflowerMadam (They HAD to kill somebody for their plan to work. RIP Ashli.)
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To: Tucker39

Lithium isn’t used as fuel. You never have to “refill” it, and when the day comes that the battery no longer holds a charge, it still has just as much lithium as it had when it was first made.

These right-wing Luddites are swallowing the bilge that left-wing worry trolls are feeding them; the communists don’t WANT there to ever be an energy solution. That’s why they now fanatically hate Elon Musk.


130 posted on 01/31/2021 3:18:14 PM PST by dangus
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To: MayflowerMadam

>> You’re still paying for brainwashing? <<

You pay taxes, don’t you?


131 posted on 01/31/2021 3:19:02 PM PST by dangus
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To: facedown

Don’t fret. As an early poster you met your goal of getting responses to something absent from the article.


132 posted on 01/31/2021 3:26:20 PM PST by Jacquerie (ArticleVBlog.com)
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To: Secret Agent Man

“and in many places no one takes public trans
i see empty buses all the time”

That is true here, in a relatively small town, but at least they are clean and safe when you do ride them.


133 posted on 01/31/2021 3:34:58 PM PST by steve86 (Prophecies of Maelmhaedhoc O'Morgair (Latin form: Malachy))
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To: steve86

I never ride them

The few who docride them are unsafe


134 posted on 01/31/2021 3:36:07 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not Averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: DFG
End game is public transit so the centralized "betters" can control you more.

I would figure a shooting war would occur before that totalitarian fantasy comes true, of course I am talking about a Mindcraft simulation..
135 posted on 01/31/2021 3:51:26 PM PST by rollo tomasi
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To: MayflowerMadam

Scottish clan Armstrong!😀


136 posted on 01/31/2021 3:51:35 PM PST by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: dfwgator

Not everywhere at once....but the need will increase slowly with the rollout of new electric vehicles......

There weren’t gas stations anywhere when the first cars rolled out......

Exception: California.....They’re crazy, all-electric vehicles by 2030 but their grid can’t even support the airconditioning load in summer......and they refuse to allow more power plants or infrastructure.....


137 posted on 01/31/2021 3:55:56 PM PST by nevergore (I have a terrible rash on my covfefe....)
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To: meatloaf

Who is going to use solar and wind except California and some limited electric companies who got huge federal grants, tax breaks, and loans to put a cursory few.

No one in the Power Industry is serious about solar and wind for large-scale energy production......

How do you conflate solar/wind energy with electric cars?


138 posted on 01/31/2021 4:00:12 PM PST by nevergore (I have a terrible rash on my covfefe....)
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To: Organic Panic
This came to mind...


139 posted on 01/31/2021 4:14:09 PM PST by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: allendale

If they ask AOC where the elecricity to be produced for millions of new electric vehicles will come from,
she will point to a socket on the wall. Rolls (protruding) eyes at questioner and sighs. Case closed.


140 posted on 01/31/2021 4:17:24 PM PST by frank ballenger (End vote fraud, harvesting,non-citizen voting & leftist media news censorship or we are finished.)
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