The spiralling environmental cost of our lithium battery addiction

[Dashinka 24,735]

Clean energy?  Does everyone understand that manufacturing anything can be quite dirty.

 

The spiralling environmental cost of our lithium battery addiction

 

By AMIT KATWALA

Here’s a thoroughly modern riddle: what links the battery in your smartphone with a dead yak floating down a Tibetan river? The answer is lithium – the reactive alkali metal that powers our phones, tablets, laptops and electric cars.

 

In May 2016, hundreds of protestors threw dead fish onto the streets of Tagong, a town on the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau. They had plucked them from the waters of the Liqi river, where a toxic chemical leak from the Ganzizhou Rongda Lithium mine had wreaked havoc with the local ecosystem.

 

There are pictures of masses of dead fish on the surface of the stream. Some eyewitnesses reported seeing cow and yak carcasses floating downstream, dead from drinking contaminated water. It was the third such incident in the space of seven years in an area which has seen a sharp rise in mining activity, including operations run by BYD, the world’ biggest supplier of lithium-ion batteries for smartphones and electric cars. After the second incident, in 2013, officials closed the mine, but when it reopened in April 2016, the fish started dying again.

 

Lithium-ion batteries are a crucial component of efforts to clean up the planet. The battery of a Tesla Model S has about 12 kilograms of lithium in it, while grid storage solutions that will help balance renewable energy would need much more.

 

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.

William Adams, head of research at Metal Bulletin, says the current spike in demand can be traced back to 2015, when the Chinese government announced a huge push towards electric vehicles in its 13th Five Year Plan. That has led to a massive rise in the number of projects to extract lithium, and there are “hundreds more in the pipeline,” says Adams.

 

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/lithium-batteries-environment-impact

[Boiler 45,946]

I think Cobalt may be worse.

[Dashinka 24,735]

54 minutes ago, Boiler said:

I think Cobalt may be worse.

Very likely.

 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180920102107.htm

[Steeleballz 7,550]

 

    I heard coal is bad too. 

[Dashinka 24,735]

3 minutes ago, Steeleballz said:

 

    I heard coal is bad too. 

That is what Old Joe said, not sure we can believe him though.

[Steeleballz 7,550]

3 minutes ago, Dashinka said:

That is what Old Joe said, not sure we can believe him though.

 

   I think you can find the information easy enough. If you want to argue otherwise I'll let you come up with the data.

 

   Lithium is awful though, I agree with you there. Just the relative scale is not there yet that it exceeds the environmental impact of fossil fuels. It certainly could get there in time. 

[Dashinka 24,735]

1 minute ago, Steeleballz said:

 

   I think you can find the information easy enough. If you want to argue otherwise I'll let you come up with the data.

 

   Lithium is awful though, I agree with you there. Just the relative scale is not there yet that it exceeds the environmental impact of fossil fuels. It certainly could get there in time. 

If we follow the lead of the Dems/Left, it will definitely get there particularly to get even close to the energy densities we get with petroleum.  The funny thing is that some many "Green" products often use products based from petroleum.

[Steeleballz 7,550]

10 minutes ago, Dashinka said:

If we follow the lead of the Dems/Left, it will definitely get there particularly to get even close to the energy densities we get with petroleum.  The funny thing is that some many "Green" products often use products based from petroleum.

 

   Given the finite supply of fossil fuels, we will all have to follow that lead at some point. Maybe not as big of an issue for our generation than younger generations, but I don't think it's an issue we ignore just because some of us will be dead before the worst of it hits us. We have passed enough problems on to younger generations. We can start fixing this mess now.

[Dashinka 24,735]

12 minutes ago, Steeleballz said:

 

   Given the finite supply of fossil fuels, we will all have to follow that lead at some point. Maybe not as big of an issue for our generation than younger generations, but I don't think it's an issue we ignore just because some of us will be dead before the worst of it hits us. We have passed enough problems on to younger generations. We can start fixing this mess now.

All elements on this planet are finite in nature.  Some more abundant than others.  That being said, with this massive push toward EVs which will require massive amounts of Li and Co, we also have to look at the power grid which is woefully inadequate.  Then if we go with intermittent sources like solar and wind, we will need even more Li and Co to store electricity for when it is not being produced.  Yes, the younger generation will face problems that we currently are not seeing, but that is something that every generation faces at some point, and they overcome, they adapt (btw, what is the new date for Peak Oil?).  Do EVs have a spot in the market, sure, but they should stand on their own and not get artificial help from some political party.

[jskibo 588]

Stop this talk, you're going to mess up my Tesla shares

[Crtcl Rice Theory 2,432]

On 2/2/2021 at 11:54 AM, jskibo said:

Stop this talk, you're going to mess up my Tesla shares

If you are still holding Tesla, you are in it to win it....all the way to Mars I am told.

[jskibo 588]

44 minutes ago, CanAm1980 said:

If you are still holding Tesla, you are in it to win it....all the way to Mars I am told.

$975 sell all Good till cancelled

[Crtcl Rice Theory 2,432]

4 minutes ago, jskibo said:

$975 sell all Good till cancelled

Yeah,  I bailed at 780. I still did well. Go for it.