Does this mean we’re going to have people stripping wire and plumbing from homes again?
The “copper shortage” could be solved immediately if the research labs can make available a “room-temperature” Superconductor material that has ZERO impedance for the flow of electrical current. There are a number of discoveries that allow such a superconductor to operate at very low temperatures, but only in the presence of liquid helium, which exists only about 4 degrees K above absolute zero.
Copper is actually a kind of clumsy way of transmitting electrical energy. but it is just about the best available for today’s engineering.