Category Archives: Batteries

Utility scale energy storage limited by minerals and geography

Posted on March 2, 2021 by

Preface. Natural gas is finite, but aside from (pumped) hydropower, natural gas is the main way wind and solar are balanced now. Therefore, a tremendous amount of energy storage will be needed in the future as natural gas declines. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Energy, Batteries, Battery - Utility Scale, CAES Compressed Air, Elements: Critical, Mining, Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS) | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Batteries are made of rare, declining, critical, and imported elements

Posted on January 7, 2021 by

Preface.  Since oil and other fossils are finite and emit carbon, the plan is to electrify society with batteries.  But doh!  Minerals used in batteries are finite too.  And dependent on fossil-fueled transportation and manufacturing from mining trucks, to smelter, … Continue reading →

Posted in Batteries, Elements: Critical, Elements: Rare Earth, Mining | Tagged , | 7 Comments

EV cars and utility scale energy storage batteries are not likely to materialize

Posted on September 21, 2020 by

Preface.  Clearly there’s not enough minerals and metals to shift from fossil fuels to electric vehicles and utility scale battery storage, due to peak critical elements, peak platinum group elements, peak precious elements, peak rare earth elements, and peak everything … Continue reading →

Posted in Automobiles, Batteries, Battery - Utility Scale, Peak Lithium | Tagged , , , | 13 Comments

Heavy-duty hydrogen fuel cell trucks a waste of energy and money

Posted on July 30, 2020 by

Preface. There are 3 articles that I summarize below: ARB. November 2015. Medium- and heavy-duty fuel cell electric vehicles. Air Resources Board, California Environmental Protection Agency. NRC. 2003. Energy and Transportation: Challenges for the Chemical Sciences in the 21st Century. … Continue reading →

Posted in Batteries, Electric Trucks, Electric trucks impossible, Hydrogen | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

MIT: Why the electric-car revolution may take a lot longer than expected

Posted on February 22, 2020 by

Preface. This study from MIT explains why price parity of electric and gasoline vehicles is likely to take a lot longer than 5 years, and perhaps never if cars continue to depend on lithium-ion batteries. Deeper cost declines beyond 2030 … Continue reading →

Posted in Automobiles, Lithium-ion | Tagged | 5 Comments

EV cars only go half as far in freezing weather

Posted on July 29, 2019 by

Preface.    Below freezing, li-ion batteries don’t perform as well.  Consumer reports found that about half the driving range was lost.  Perhaps this is why nearly half of PHEV/BEV vehicles are sold in balmy California, while the half of the states … Continue reading →

Posted in Automobiles, Lithium-ion | Tagged | 4 Comments

Utility scale energy storage has a long way to go to make renewables possible

Posted on May 15, 2019 by

What follows comes from my book “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation” , which is also where you’ll find the references backing up what I’ve written below. I often get letters from people about energy breakthroughs … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Energy, Batteries, Battery - Utility Scale, Critical Thinking, Electric Grid, Electricity, Renewable Integration | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Why aren’t there battery powered airplanes or flying cars?

Posted on March 13, 2019 by

Preface.  Batteries are too heavy for airplanes to get off the ground. Though that hasn’t stopped people from trying: Norway’s new electric plane crashes during demo flight (Robitzski 2019) The two articles below explain why. Alice Friedemann   www.energyskeptic.com  author of … Continue reading →

Posted in Batteries, Energy | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Can Zinc batteries save us?

Posted on February 17, 2019 by

Preface: The New York Times had two articles about zinc air batteries in September 2018.  Right now, finite natural gas is the dominant way of balancing unreliable, outright missing, or intermittent power from wind and solar.  So other energy storage … Continue reading →

Posted in Batteries, Energy Storage, Lithium-ion | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Want to go off-grid? You might need hundreds of Tesla batteries

Posted on February 4, 2018 by

Preface. Although you may not be as far north as Victoria, British Columbia (48.4 latitude), you’d ideally want to be at 30 degrees or less latitude from the equator to even consider the expense of off-grid solar power.  And even … Continue reading →

Posted in Batteries, Photovoltaic Solar | Tagged , , | 11 Comments