Archive:000/The great battery challenge

So the world is gonna need a lot of batteries if we want green energy to work properly. The challenge is how to do this without exploiting people or the planet even worse than the status quo of fossil fuels.

Basic requirements

Qualitative

We need battery tech that...

• doesn't require too many rare minerals
• doesn't require too much energy to produce and later recycle(...)( This implies an additional requirement: Recyclability )
• doesn't require too much labor

There doesn't need to be a "one size fits all" solution. Clearly different battery tech is good for different applications. But as a simple viability test, we need to imagine what would happen if the battery tech was scaled up to the amount of energy storage we'd need in a world without fossil fuels.

Quantitative

Scale used: Estimated energy storage that would be needed if all vehicles were electric. See whyIt's a compromise between two considerations:

- On one hand, we're going to need more than just vehicle batteries if solar and wind are main power sources. We'd also need on-grid energy storage.

- On the other hand, battery tech won't be one-size-fits-all: it's possible to have a mix of battery tech (each with different mineral profiles) that could together meet 100% of all potential demand (full green energy scenario), even when no individual battery tech (within the mix) could meet the 100% on its own (limited by mineral reserves). Also, there are ways to reduce the need for vehicle energy storage (public transit and walkability)..

ev.battery

65.2 kWh

Energy capacity of the average electric vehicle battery

Useable battery capacity of full electric vehicles
https://ev-database.org/cheatsheet/useable-battery-capacity-electric-car

world.cars

1.446 billion

How Many Cars Are There In The World in 2022?
https://hedgescompany.com/blog/2021/06/how-many-cars-are-there-in-the-world/

commercial_factor

2

Without this, we'd be calculating for just personal vehicles. But we also need to factor in commercial vehicles such as buses and trucks. These vary widely in size, and data is hard to find, so for simplicity sake, we just assume that they'd add up to about the same as personal vehicles - thus doubling total energy storage needed. This assumption is based on the fact that freight trucks are a somewhat smaller share of energy demand than passenger vehicles, but the trucks probably need a longer range.

world.cars * ev.battery * commercial_factor terajoules scale (calculation loading)

Minerals

For each mineral, divide its global reserves by scale. This gives you a reasonable limit (in grams per kWh).

chromium.reserves

570 million tonnes

Global mineral reserves of chromium metal

Chromium reserves worldwide by country 2021 - Statista
https://www.statista.com › statistics › reserves-of-...

chromium.reserves / scale grams per kWh (calculation loading)

cobalt.reserves

7.1 million tonnes

Cobalt metal: Total global mineral reserves

https://www.statista.com/statistics/264930/global-cobalt-reserves/

cobalt.reserves / scale grams per kWh (calculation loading)

copper.reserves

870 million tonnes

Global mineral reserves of copper metal

USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2021

copper.reserves / scale grams per kWh (calculation loading)

iron.reserves

84 billion tonnes

Global mineral reserves of iron metal

Source: USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2021

iron.reserves / scale grams per kWh (calculation loading)

lead.reserves

90.4 million tonnes

Lead (metal): Global mineral reserves

https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/our-natural-resources/minerals-mining/minerals-metals-facts/lead-facts/20518

lead.reserves / scale grams per kWh (calculation loading)

lithium.reserves

18425000 tonnes

Lithium metal: Total global mineral reserves

https://www.statista.com/statistics/268790/countries-with-the-largest-lithium-reserves-worldwide/
Added up all the countries: 9,200,000 + 4,700,000 + 1,900,000 + 1,500,000 + 750,000 + 220,000 + 95,000 + 60,000 = 18,425,000 metric tons

lithium.reserves / scale grams per kWh (calculation loading)

nickel.reserves

94 million tons

Global reserves of nickel metal

Source: USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2021

nickel.reserves / scale grams per kWh (calculation loading)

silver.reserves

500000 tonnes

Global mineral reserves of silver metal

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1114842/global-silver-reserves/

silver.reserves / scale grams per kWh (calculation loading)

This is not a full list of minerals.

Energy and labor

For simplicity sake(...)( and due to lack of data ), we just have to assume (for now) that any tech that stays within mineral limits(...)( as talked about above ) won't need an outrageous amount of energy or labor to produce. Manufacturing & recycling probably doesn't vary quite as much as mining does(...)( the energy & labor of mining depends heavily on which mineral is being mined, how rare it is ). Ultimately we do need to assess the EROI of energy storage.