Tag Archives: recycling

Peak lithium makes transportation & electricity storage pointless

Preface.  The lithium batteries in cars need electricity to recharge, but the electric grid can’t stay up with just wind and solar, that’s why natural gas is the energy storage today. Nor do pumped hydro or compressed air energy storage … Continue reading

Posted in Automobiles, Battery - Utility Scale, Electrification, Peak Lithium, Recycle, Recycling | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Why rare and valuable metals are not recycled

Preface. This is a post about why rare and critical metals aren’t recycled at all or at best, just a small percent. Basically it is still cheaper to mine them from scratch than to try to separate them out from … Continue reading

Posted in Peak Critical Elements, Peak Platinum Group Elements, Peak Precious Elements, Peak Rare Earth Elements, Recycle, Recycling, Ugo Bardi | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Vaclav Smil. Making the modern world: materials and dematerialization

Preface.  I can’t believe I read this book, it is just a long litany of the  gigantic amounts of materials we exploit, with no analysis, implications, or the meaning of what impact this will have on the planet. I certainly … Continue reading

Posted in Infrastructure Books, Life Before Oil, Limits To Growth, Peak Resources, Vaclav Smil | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

Germany’s wind energy mess: As subsidies expire, thousands Of turbines to close

Preface. This means that the talk about renewables being so much cheaper than anything else isn’t necessarily true.  If wind were profitable, more turbines would be built to replace the old ones  without subsidies needed. Unless they can be dumped … Continue reading

Posted in Electric Grid & Fast Collapse, Energy Infrastructure, Wind | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Gail Tverberg: 8 pitfalls in evaluating green energy solutions

Eight Pitfalls in Evaluating Green Energy Solutions November 18, 2014 by Gail Tverberg Does the recent climate accord between US and China mean that many countries will now forge ahead with renewables and other green solutions? I think that there are … Continue reading

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