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 ...
“No one in the Power Industry is serious about solar and wind for large-scale energy production......”
Probably true but they are sucking up to the filthy government. Also, no one in their right mind is serious about solar and wind.
Solution is the government will only allow people to drive on alternate days according to their last names, and then reduced to alternating every two weeks due to not enough power, then no air conditioning or lights used at home for each upcoming day you want a credit to be allowed to drive for an acceptable purpose (work or school....).
Fugs singing group member and poet Tuli Kupferberg wrote a humorous book 1001 Ways to Live Without Working: A Standard Of Laziness (1967). It included: Eat every other day, then cut down to every other, other day.
I'm a Lazy Procrastinator.......Can't work today, so I put it off till tomorrow, but then it's today again...
Your saying should be "Why put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow".
Okay, I may adopt that...However, I'll give it serious consideration in a couple of days.......
Funny. Good attitude for the new socialist era---until all the money runs out to send to everyone at home.
Somebody besides me remembers the Fugs!
I remember them... erybody sing.....”MY baby doneeft me..my. aby done went to a drive in movie with someone else......and I feel like ho.d made sh#%@ ....” lol
At least I'm good for something around here.
Their name came from friend Norman Mailer whose fictional book about his combat in the Pacific The Naked and the Dead had to be censored. They made him change the ubiquitous cuss word of the soldiers to "fug". The book got published and won the Pulitzer Prize.
at the rate we are going it would be better to get things done today because it may be illegal to do them tomorrow...
If the Green New Deal is passed and a carbon tax is passed we’ll see more coal fired power plants shut down.
The utility industry got into a reserve capacity bind in the 90’s that companies like Enron took advantage of. We’re nearing the same situation now. F
WIW a large windmill project was just announced for WV. Conventional fueled power plants can’t compete with subsidized renewable power sources. The problem is those aren’t 24/7 sources.
Are ya sure?
Democrats don't care about 'the details'...also know as 'reality'...
West Texas has more lithium than it knows what to do with. The flow back water and produced water from scene is LOADED with massive amounts of lithium. One of my Alma mater UT Austin has tech to harvest it before the salt water is reinjected into the disposal well. I did SWD development geology and geochemistry for years in the Permian basin I’m a geologist. The avg well in the Permian produces 6 bbl of salt water at 3 times the salinity of seawater per 1 bank of oil equivalent. I have seen 100 to one at times. Permian wells have as much or more than Barnett wells in lithium Florida salts per bbl. 200 cars per week per well and tens of thousands of active wells on production the resource is effectively limitless it’s like running out of salt in the ocean actually it is exactly the same thing the lithium salts were always in seawater the Shale just concentrated them to 3 to tens times the amount per cubic meter of fluid via diogenisis under ground driving water away and trapping the salts in the Shale particulates.
“Produced water from shale gas fields in Texas is rich in lithium. Advanced separation materials concepts such as ours could potentially turn this waste stream into a resource recovery opportunity,” Freeman said.
Each well in the Barnett and Eagle Ford can generate up to 300,000 gallons of produced water per week. Using their new process, Freeman and his team conservatively estimate that from just one week’s worth of produced water, enough lithium can be recovered to power 200 electric cars or 1.6 million smartphones.
https://news.utexas.edu/2018/02/09/new-lithium-collection-method-could-boost-global-supply/
Oh I how loath autocorrect.
Midland wells avg 6/1 salt water to oil on a bbl basis.
*Florida = chlorides
The other major hurdle for electric vehicles is CHARGING TIME. It’s one thing to recharge your car battery while it’s parked in your garage overnight, but it will be decades (if ever) before a car battery can be charged in the same period of time it takes to refill a gas tank.
False
Every new Tesla sold has the option of 250kw charging today.
A Tesla model 3 has 80 kWh of usable capacity in it’s pack. At 250kw it would take 80/250 = .32 hr or 19 minutes to put 80kWh into the pack. Typically for pack life you fast charge to 80% then slow down for the last 20% so 330 miles range @80% is 264 miles. 80% of 80kWh is 64 kWh / 250 kw is .25 hr or 15 minutes this agrees with the time I have actually spent at a super charger to reach 80% with a model 3 LR on lease. Tesla is working with the EU to standardize 800 volt charge protocols which will allow 500Kw and 1000kw rates. The times to 80% drop to 7.5 min and 3.8 min respectively. Tesla packs are liquid cooled and can take 250,500 and with designed for it 1 megawatt rates. It sounds like a lot but remember 60% of the energy in a internal combustion engine ends up in the cooling circuit and exhaust ruffly split between each. A 300hp engine puts about 140 kw of heat through it’s radiator at any given instant at full power. Battery charge at 90+% efficiency less than 10% is lost due to resistance and heat. 250 kw @10 r resistive losses is only 25kw of heat even a megawatt rate is still only 100kw a normal car sized radiator and fan can pass that level with ease. Copper to liquid heat interfaces can and do take 100w/cm2 in heavy density well above what even a megawatt rate would put out given the energy density of 250whr/kg of pack weight. Tesla has smart engineers they already have mastered 250 and 500 kw rates a doubling to a MW is the goal and they will get there soon once the charge standards are set.
You are totally neglecting fast / super charger stations. Which conveniently are usually located at truck stops or restaurants. I leased a Tesla model 3 for a month to test it for my LLC I drive 36,000+ miles a year to and from Midland,Houston, and New Orleans. NO is the farthest 590 miles one way. Leaving my garage with a full pack that m3 gets me to Alexandra L.A. Where it takes 25 minutes to put 80% back in the pack that’s 265 more miles and more than enough to get to New Orleans from there. I normally don’t make it the 5 hours to Alexandra my bladder gives up at 3.5 in Shreveport which has a super charger at their shopping mall. So I stop for a stretch and leak then on to Alexandra where I stop again got some Cajun eats while that Tesla takes 25 minutes to suck up juice. Alexandra has two super chargers both have food within a few hundred feet of them. Once at New Orleans the valet at respectable hotels the ACE being on of my favorites will plug you in for an overnight charge which once in NO it’s uber lyft and trolleys everywhere no DUI for this geologist on holiday. We fly out of Holma to the rig and the lot where I park has 120v plugs available at a half dozen spots with 3 weeks while I’m out water plenty to put in full range. On the way home it’s Shreveport as a food stop usually stop at Eldorado to hit the tables for a few hours while the Tesla drinks in the garage or there’s two super chargers near by should I just want to eat n dash. So it works out like this 3.5 to 5 hours in the seat 25 minutes to charge n eat usually don’t rush my food , have a beer or two and then continue then 4 to 5 more hours to rural Texas n home. Midland is closer by half as is Houston either can be reached with one 10 minute super charger piss break there again I like to eat while it charged. I was so impressed once my currently ICE reaches it EOL at 100k and I depreciate it and sell it my next vehicle will be a Tesla model 3 for sure. The cost per mile is one tenth what petrol costs I have solar panels on my roof so effectively free power during the day and 3 cents when pulling banked power back from the grid at night. 3 cents kWh power vs 2.18 gal petrol is .75 cents per mile Tesla vs 7.66 cents per mile S60 Volvo @30mpg and 4 miles kWh for the Tesla. Sorry EVs are the future and I’m a petroleum geologist saying this. Oil will always be needed so I’m not worried about demand oil is the Lego blocks that holds society together the lube that keeps it moving and the plant food that feeds it. Oil is arguably to precious to burn we should save it for petrochemicals, plastics, fertilizer, medication, lubricants, composite materials...you get the idea. That doesn’t change the fact that EVs are superior technology to internal combustion now that bat tech has the energy density and the cycle life to have long range 300 miles+ and 5000+ cycles per pack. Tesla has packs in commercial services that are over 500,000 miles and climbing. The factory warranty is 8 years unlimited miles for current new models they are that confident in the packs. The model 3 is designed for 1,000,000 miles on the motors, bearings and inverters because those are the same parts as the commercial class 8 trucks that will be out this year. The packs right now are 500k with 1000k packs in the next generation. No light duty ice engine can touch that. Only large diesels have 500000 mile rebuild intervaks. An drive trains have three moving parts in the motor two bearings and the motor an ICE engine has over 1200 moving parts it’s simple physics as to why electric motors will always be superior to internal combustion. Efficiency as well first law machines vs second law machines if I have to explain the difference then the engineering genius of electric mobility is already a lost cause.
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