FillThisEmptyCup t1_j46x4td wrote on January 13, 2023 at 4:19 PM

Reply to comment by Surur in German EV and plug-in car sales hit 55.4% market share in December 2022 by Surur

>, and batteries are one of the most fungible items in the green revolution

Not when they have to be portable. A case for storage batteries can be made.

>you can even make one from compressed air.

Was tried with modern materials a decade+ ago. Wasn't feasible.

Dr Lovins isn't talking about EROEI. I'm sure all the lithium we need is in the ocean itself. Yet when things are dispersed too much, it becomes economically infeasible to gather it up.

There 800 trillions worth of gold in the oceans but it's so dispersed, it's not worth gathering it. Dr. Fritz Haber of Haber-Bosch fame tried working that out for the better part of a decade in the 1920s to help pay for Germany's reparations.

New tech may help. It may not. It's not a magical genie that makes absolutely everything possible.

Surur OP t1_j46yhc0 wrote on January 13, 2023 at 4:27 PM

There is no need to guess - check the US government's report:

https://www.usgs.gov/centers/national-minerals-information-center/lithium-statistics-and-information

>Four mineral operations in Australia, two brine operations each in Argentina and Chile, and two brine and one mineral operation in China accounted for the majority of world lithium production. Additionally, smaller operations in Brazil, China, Portugal, the United States, and Zimbabwe also contributed to world lithium production. Owing to the resurgence in demand and increased prices of lithium in 2021, established lithium operations worldwide resumed capacity expansion plans which were postponed in 2020 in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

> Lithium supply security has become a top priority for technology companies in Asia, Europe, and the United States. Strategic alliances and joint ventures among technology companies and exploration companies continued to be established to ensure a reliable, diversified supply of lithium for battery suppliers and vehicle manufacturers.

> Brinebased lithium sources were in various stages of development in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, China, and the United States; mineral-based lithium sources were in various stages of development in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Congo (Kinshasa), Czechia, Finland, Germany, Mali, Namibia, Peru, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, the United States, and Zimbabwe; lithium-clay sources were in various stages of development in Mexico and the United States; and a searlesite source was in development in the United States.

Stop being such a sceptic - it does not make you sound smarter.

Leave it to the people whose job it is to solve these problems.