Posted on 09/01/2012 4:19:40 PM PDT by djf
The Peak Energy blog has just reported on the purchase of an Australian lithium mine by a U.S. group as evidence of the skyrocketing demand for the silver-white metal used in a variety of batteries.
The story of the Australian-based Talison Lithium company is interesting, but the eye-opener is at the bottom of the story. A graph illustrates that demand for lithium has been growing 20% per year since 2000 – and that the real growth will kick in starting in 2015.
Here at SGN, we've been carefully monitoring the progress of electric vehicles and grid-scale storage and related topics ranging from China's drastic reductions in lithium exports to DOE's attempts to find a workaround for the rare earths shortage, as well as the ups and downs of the EV battery industry. But the future of energy storage may depend on whether or not we're already nearing the peak of available lithium, or whether we can find new supplies.
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Jesse Berst is the founder and chief analyst of Smart Grid News.com, the industry's oldest and largest smart grid site. A frequent keynoter at industry events in the U.S. and abroad, he also serves on advisory committees for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Institute for Electric Efficiency. He often provides strategic consulting to large corporations and venture-backed startups. He is a member of the advisory boards of GridGlo and Calico Energy Services.
Do the computation by volume ~ your nickel iron battery will be far lighter than older nickel iron batteries.
I don’t need an electric car, but I do need my LI powered cordless tools. Ban EV’s now!
There is more lithium on the planet than anyone knows what to do with. The only shortage is of lithium mines.
The problem with lithium is not that it is rare, but that it rarely concentrates, and is fairly evenly distributed. For example seawater is estimated to contain some 230 billion tons of lithium.
Best to get started right away then...
But I'll betcha my entire stock of double-a's somebody has been on that for a while already. It's not like these R&D shops discover some new technology and then go home and do crossword puzzles until OMG PEAK WHATEVER!!!
Maybe so, but if I'm the guy who's got to let his electric car sit idle for a few years while the new tech comes online, I'm *NOT* going to be a happy camper! :O
It might be worse. It might be that the current cars couldn’t even run on the new things. Or cell phones. Or laptops. That’s alot of full dumpsters.
Me, personally, I HATE wasting stuff. If it still has good life/use in it, I try to keep it going. Got a couple laptops running WIN/ME that I use only for older games, etc. Work just fine.
Well, that’s just great. When they figure out how to make a lithium ion battery without lithium manganese dioxide, 97% of which is in China, then Chile will be in the driver’s seat. (rolls eyes) BTW, Nevada has quite a lot of lithium also.
Well for one there is many different compounds for batteries than just lithium manganese, secondly since lithium exists as a mineral in nature it is relatively easy to process into different salts and compounds and to purify. You make it sound as if the Chinese have pre-made lithium manganese oxide just oozing from the ground without the need of processing. Well I hate to burst your bubble, thats not how they do it. They extract the lithium from lithium carbonate deposits and then create the compounds for Li-ion batteries from that.
-——I got some dilithium crystal futures to sell!-——
I’ll take a hundred thousand shares. I’ll send you a check on my Gold Pressed Latinum account.
You need to read up on this. You do know that manganese is an element, not a process, right? And that lithium manganese dioxide is a mineral not the result of processing lithium. If your contention is that lithium deposits can be commercially synthesized into lithium manganese dioxide, you are just wrong.
Ooops! I mean Manganese is a mineral. There is plenty of lithium everywhere. Manganese is required to make a lithium ion battery as in the Leaf, etc. You can’t process lithium into a battery without China controlling the minerals.
GLORIFIED_GOLF_CART_PING!
I have read up on this. I think you need to because the bulk of Chinese deposits are lithium carbonate. Lithium Manganese Dioxide is easily created by adding lithium to Manganese Dioxide. Lithium Manganese Dioxide does not occur in nature that often. However the Chinese do control MgO2, but like I said there are literally dozens of different Lithium Ion battery technologies, its just that LiMgO2 is the easiest to implement which is why we see it in most smaller batteries.
I have to agree that predicting peak anything for the future based on today’s technology is a losing bet. But, one could not power a Leaf today without MnO2.
Practice: "No war for lithium!"
"The Lithuanians are oppressing the poor!"
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