Oh, yes, batteries and hydrogen are improving a lot, I mentioned that. But the issues lie elsewhere. For batteries, it’s the fact that there are not enough materials for seasonal storage, even if you doubled battery capacity—plus the energy cost of making batteries. For hydrogen, it’s the explosiveness, the dependency on platinum and the fact that it leaks easily without costly infrastructure. For fusion, it’s the time required—even fast tracks scenarios plan that it may provide 1% of energy by 2060.
And as pointed out by Jaime Sevilla, Li being common is not the main point—what matters is the energy cost of mining. Less energy going to mining means less metals. Another topic that matters is the time- lithium mines take 7 to 15 years to go from exploration to production. Current plans by the IAE are already deemed irrealists given the current mining pipeline.
I also have a specific document where I put a details versions on the issues at hand. You might want to check the ones on metals, storage, hydrogen, and fusion.
Oh, yes, batteries and hydrogen are improving a lot, I mentioned that. But the issues lie elsewhere. For batteries, it’s the fact that there are not enough materials for seasonal storage, even if you doubled battery capacity—plus the energy cost of making batteries. For hydrogen, it’s the explosiveness, the dependency on platinum and the fact that it leaks easily without costly infrastructure. For fusion, it’s the time required—even fast tracks scenarios plan that it may provide 1% of energy by 2060.
And as pointed out by Jaime Sevilla, Li being common is not the main point—what matters is the energy cost of mining. Less energy going to mining means less metals. Another topic that matters is the time- lithium mines take 7 to 15 years to go from exploration to production. Current plans by the IAE are already deemed irrealists given the current mining pipeline.
There are summarized version of this in post 1.
I also have a specific document where I put a details versions on the issues at hand. You might want to check the ones on metals, storage, hydrogen, and fusion.