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- Peak Oil is Officially Here! World oil production peaked November of 2018
- Wood, the fuel of preindustrial societies, is half of EU renewable energy
- Rare Earth updates: recent research on why complex & intelligent life are rare in the Universe
- Book review of “Chip War” and the Fragility of microchips
- The tremendous material and energy toll of the digital economy
- Nuclear attack on U.S. could kill 90% of Americans
- What percent of Americans are rational?
- Book review of Lights Out. A Cyberattack. A Nation Unprepared. Surviving the Aftermath
- Off-Road vehicles & equipment need diesel fuel
- Book review of “Prime Movers of Globalization: the History & Impact of Diesel Engines & Gas Turbines”
- Mental Health. Coping with the future: notes from Jackson & Jensen’s “An Inconvenient Apocalypse”
- Tesla Semi trucks hauling corn chips
- What is the plan for an electric grid outage that lasts for months?
- Where to be? Links to Superfund, hazardous waste and other toxic sites in U.S.
- Why methanol cannot replace petroleum as a transportation fuel
Search Results for: batteries
Sodium Sulfur Batteries
Recent research progress in sodium ion batteries: (a) cathode, (b) anode, (c) electrolyte and (d) binder. Source: Hwang J (2017) Sodium-ion batteries: present and future. Chem. Soc. Review 46: 3529-3614 DOI: 10.1039/C6CS00776G Preface. If lithium were used for both EV … Continue reading
Posted in Battery - Utility Scale
Tagged battery, electricity storage, sodium, utility scale energy storage
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Hibernating freeze-thaw molten salt batteries for seasonal energy storage
Preface. A 100% renewable grid can’t happen without long-term energy storage. Today that’s done with natural gas (with a little help from hydropower in the 10 states that have most of it). Meanwhile nuclear and coal chug along at a … Continue reading
Batteries use rare, declining, critical, & imported elements from unstable countries
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-fuels entirely in their life cycle, from mining trucks … Continue reading
Posted in Batteries, Mining, Peak Critical Elements, Peak Rare Earth Elements
Tagged batteries, peak minerals
7 Comments
EV cars and utility scale energy storage batteries are not likely to materialize
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 battery, EV, lithium, utility scale energy storage
13 Comments
How safe are utility-scale energy storage batteries?
This 2 MW battery, installed by the Arizona Public Service electric company, exploded in April 2019 and sent eight firefighters and a policeman to the hospital (Cooper 2019). At least 23 South Korean lithium-ion facilities caught fire in a series … Continue reading
Posted in Batteries, Lithium-ion, Safety
Tagged battery, failure, fluoride gas, hazardous, hydrogen fluoride, phosphoryl fluoride, toxic gas
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Can Zinc batteries save the electric grid?
Preface: Right now, and as long as natural gas lasts, the electric grid will stay up since it is the main storage and way to balance unreliable wind and solar power. Hydropower can also play a major role in the … Continue reading
Posted in Batteries, Energy Storage, Lithium-ion
Tagged air, battery, lithium, reserves, zinc
1 Comment
Want to go off-grid? You might need hundreds of Tesla batteries
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
How are energy storage batteries coming along? U.S. House hearing 2015
[ My favorite quotes from this U.S. House of Representatives session: THOMAS MASSIE, KENTUCKY. I want to say this has been a very enlightening hearing, and it confirms my personal experience, which is batteries are not sexy. Buckets of acid … Continue reading
Posted in Batteries, Energy Storage, U.S. Congress Energy Policy
Tagged battery, energy storage
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