Lithium will be central to any attempts to decarbonise the planet but some doubt that we'll have enough of the finite resource, writes Adam Maguire.
When the move to renewables is discussed, much of the focus – understandably – tends to be around energy sources like wind and solar.That’s because you need batteries not only for electric cars, but also as a way of storing the excess energy that’s generated by wind and solar, which could then be used when the weather is less favourable.
Given all of the emissions targets that are in place, a lot of which have deadline in or around 2030, there isn’t a huge amount of time for production to ramp up.You’d think that would be the case – but it’s actually in the middle of a slump right now. But the downside of the price being low is that it could discourage companies to expand existing mines, or set up new ones. They’ll feel it won’t be worth their while at the current price.
And one of the benefits of lithium is that it’s infinitely recycle-able – so as the EV market grows, and we have more reaching the end of their lifespan, we’ll start seeing more second hand lithium available on the market. We need these resources if we’re going to have any chance of decarbonising our energy systems – but in order to get those resources, you need a lot of energy, and often a lot of water too.
Sodium Ion, as the name suggests, relies on sodium rather than lithium – which as a resource is much easier to find and extract and, so, less environmentally harmful. In theory you can use any number of materials in that – so you could make one that’s more environmentally friendly than lithium .
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