Category Archives: Battery – Utility Scale

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

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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

Posted in Battery - Utility Scale, CSP with thermal energy storage, Renewable Integration | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

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

World Peak Uranium Production

Preface.  The World Nuclear Association estimates 90 years are left.  Today  67,500 tonnes of uranium are consumed a year world-wide and production in 2020 was 47,731 tonnes (WNA 2021). Sounds a bit peakish, thank goodness for stockpiles and the infinite … Continue reading

Posted in An Index of Best Energyskeptic Posts, Battery - Utility Scale, CAES Compressed Air, Electric Grid & Fast Collapse, Gen IV SMR reactors, Natural Gas Energy Storage, Nuclear Power Energy, Nuclear spent fuel fire, Nuclear War, Nuclear Waste, Peak Uranium, Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS) | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on World Peak Uranium Production

Utility scale energy storage doesn’t scale up: limits to minerals and geography

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. And … Continue reading

Posted in Alternative Energy, Batteries, Battery - Utility Scale, CAES Compressed Air, Mining, Peak Critical Elements, Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS) | Tagged , , , , , , , | 18 Comments

Renewables: not enough minerals, energy or time and mining is destructive

Preface. Electricity generating contraptions like wind and solar can’t replace the 50% of oil used in global manufacturing, because they can’t generate the high heat needed, or run battery or catenary electric trucks as I explained in “When Trucks Top … Continue reading

Posted in Alternative Energy, Battery - Utility Scale, Peak Critical Elements, Peak Platinum Group Elements, Peak Rare Earth Elements, Peak Resources, Recycle, Recycling, Solar, Wind | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Minerals essential for wind, solar, and high-tech, are anything but clean and green

This is a book review of Pitron’s “The rare metals war”.  To produce the metals and minerals to make a transition to wind, solar, nuclear and so on would be incredibly destructive and polluting. A fifth of China’s arable land … Continue reading

Posted in Battery - Utility Scale, Mining, Peak Critical Elements, Peak Rare Earth Elements, Peak Resources, Photovoltaic Solar, Recycle, Recycling, Wind | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

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 , , , | 13 Comments

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

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 & Fast Collapse, Electricity Infrastructure, Renewable Integration | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

How is California’s AB2514 experiment with utility scale battery storage coming along?

[ This is an excellent article by Tod Kiefer about tests of sodium-sulfur batteries, which are the only kind of battery for which there is enough material on earth to make. Battery electric storage is meant to “replace nimble, fast-ramping … Continue reading

Posted in Batteries, Battery - Utility Scale, Electricity Infrastructure | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment