“Analysis of Lithium’s geological resource base shows that there is insufficient Lithium available in the Earth’s
crust to sustain Electric Vehicle manufacture in the volumes required, based solely on LiIon batteries.
Depletion rates would exceed current oil depletion rates and switch dependency from one diminishing
resource to another. Concentration of supply would create new geopolitical tensions, not reduce them.”
You left out my favorite part of that quote, the next paragraph.
‘The alternative battery technologies of ZnAir and NaNiCl are not resource constrained and offer potentially
higher performance than LiIon. Research and industrialisation of Electrified Vehicles must also prioritise these alternative battery technologies.’
So we need to improve battery preformance, we already know that. Just because what we have now isnt the best, doesnt mean that that things wont get better in the future. Hell, the author in your piece even identified which ones would be better.
As for where we will get the energy, well, solar, wind, geothermal, hydro and ocean currents all hold a part of the key. Add in the kinda renewable/green sources like biomass, neuclar and hydrogen and you have some more. Finally the USA has alot more natural gas and coal then it does oil, and natural gas has a much smaller carbon footprint and both can be sequestered if demanded (stupid idea, but possible). Any grid can be updated at a cost not at all reminicent of the trade deficit we have with oil. Imagine if we spend 30-50billion a month on our infrastructure instead of importing it to the middle east. (well really Canada and Mexico since they provide most of our imports.) Our grid would be in shape in no time.
And if in no other way, we already have some of it. Most cars would charge overnight. Electricity demand falls off dramatically after about 10pm and doesnt pick up till about 6 am. Current electric plants just make a certain amount of electricity and dump it into the grid. If we dont use it, it gets lost in transmission. We use peaker plants to get ourselves over the worst times of peak demand like summer afternoons. Just capture that lost energy being dumped into the lines at 1am to drive your car at 8 am. Load balancing if done right is 0 cost in either money or carbon. Alittle computer programing about WHEN to charge the battery could do alot of good.
