Green Weenie of the Week: Batteries!

"In a recent debate with a Kommitted Klimatista, my interlocutor remarked proudly on a hotel he had invested in whose energy is completely supplied by solar power. Knowing that the sun actually goes down and stops supplying electrons, I asked the obvious question:

“So, is the hotel disconnected from the grid?”

You don’t need to guess what the answer was, and why the claim that any building is “100 percent powered by renewables” (like Apple) is the epitome of fake news. Whereupon this Klimatista explained that before long we’ll have these terrific batteries that we can charge up during the daytime to supply our electricity over night. Problem solved! The planet is saved!

Although electricity is indeed the best and most efficient form of power in the abstract, I’m always amazed that no one bothers to ask a simple question: assuming we can get the cost of better batteries down, and increase their functionality (charging time, etc), has anyone‚ Bueller? Bueller?—bothered to do the materials calculations of increasing our battery production at least 1000-fold (just for the United States)? Ever seen what a lithium mine looks like, let alone all of the other materials required for batteries? How many new lithium, cobalt, and copper mines are we going to need to scale up 1,000x? Anyone bothered to take into account the carbon footprint of the materials supply chain and energy-intensive manufacturing process for this much new battery capacity? It is a non-trivial amount. (This is why some life-cycle studies conclude that a Tesla has a larger total carbon footprint than a gasoline-powered car depending on the electricity mix where it is operated.)"

[Power Line]