Now that we understand how batteries work, let’s talk about how they influence our push toward green energy. With Tesla becoming the most valuable automaker in the world, along with legacy automakers like Ford and Volkswagen (or Voltswagen, yikes) focusing their efforts on electric vehicles (EV), we can see the growing demand for EV’s as an essential part of a sustainable future. We can even expand this further to make sense of why batteries are at the center of it all.
Storage Wars
In the last post, I mentioned that the 2 main hurdles that came with green energy were generating energy and storing energy. We all need electricity to survive. It powers not just our phones and computers, but also keeps us warm and cooks our food. The need for power for survival is why we turned to oil and gas in the first place. These resources were easy to burn and produced the energy we needed. Even today we still use them because although they are wasteful and less efficient, they meet our needs faster than other green alternatives. The main question that comes with transition is how do we make the switch without leaving people behind?
What if we first focused on the storage of energy and then worried about its generation? Think about it. Cars need to go, ships need to sail, and planes need to fly. The main critique of going green is that it would slow things down. We need to drive less, we need to sail less, and we need to fly less. We know from masks and covid, it’s very hard to tell people what to do. Moreover, slowing down our economy is not something governments and politicians will ever go for. So we take a different approach - storage.
Once we have batteries capable of storing and releasing energy in amounts necessary for a car, a house, a plane, a ship, a train, and so on, we’re able to better focus on generating the energy needed to charge the batteries. We can harness the solar power in Florida, use the wind farms in Texas, or use any source of generation to power and charge batteries that can then be used to run our lives.
Atomic #3
Now that we know battery technology is essential, where should we invest? Welcome to the world of precious metals. Say hello to Lithium.
While the U.S. does have Lithium reserves, we’re only number 4 on the top 6. The interesting part is while China is number 6, they’re actually at the top in Lithium mining and production which means they currently dominate the market.
This is where things go from green initiatives to straight-up geopolitics. This data correlates with Biden’s aggressive push toward green initiatives. It’s not just about creating millions of clean-energy jobs, it’s also about making sure China doesn’t dominate the market. The Washington Post reports:
As the Biden administration promises to jump-start the clean-energy economy, it faces an uphill climb: The United States has fallen behind Asia and Europe in the race to produce the central technology — the high-tech batteries that power electric cars and store solar and wind energy.
China dominates battery production today, with 93 “gigafactories” that manufacture lithium-ion battery cells, vs. only four in the United States, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, a prominent data provider. If current trends continue, China is projected to have 140 gigafactories by 2030, while Europe will have 17 and the United States, just 10.+
That would leave the United States dependent on China and other trading partners for much of its battery supply, a risky proposition not just for the auto industry but for the military, which is planning to electrify more of its vehicles and gear. It would also mean missing out on much of the jobs boom the sector is expected to bring.
The push toward green energy has usually been viewed as a force of social change. However, now it’s aligned itself with market forces and geopolitics similar to the space race. And if getting to the moon is any indication, things might be moving in the right direction.
Thank You
The push toward green energy is fascinating when you start to look at all the different pieces involved. I’m happy to see the money and the politics flowing in the right direction. However, it’s hard to support massive government spending when a lot of their recent projects have been littered with waste. Will the government try to go at it alone or will they partner with the private sector? Not just to rebuild our infrastructure, but to make it better? Guess we’ll have to find out.
As always, if you have any questions or still want more explanations, comment below, follow me on Twitter, or shoot me an email.
White Gold
“We know from masks and covid it’s very hard to tell people what to do.” Yup. 😂