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Aluminum is interesting. It's sort of a way to do energy arbitrage, since its production needs an immense amount of electricity to reduce bauxite into usable al
by tomkinstinch 11y ago
Aluminum is interesting. It's sort of a way to do energy arbitrage, since its production needs an immense amount of electricity to reduce bauxite into usable aluminum. Iceland has sufficient surplus energy to "export" electricity in the form of refined aluminum, making them a big player in the global aluminum trade.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Iceland#Aluminium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Iceland#Aluminium
- usaar333 11y agoIt seems pretty horrible for the environment for a country to be using coal-powered electricity for aluminum smelting. If a global carbon tax existed, aluminum production would correctly be even more skewed toward counties with surplus renewable energy (iceland, canada, norway, brazil)
- jacobolus 11y agoThis article points out that US plants in places where there is cheap hydro power will stay open. Sounds like at least in the US the market for aluminum is working as it should. It’s horrible to be using coal-powered electricity at all, and especially for anything that can be produced with “free” surplus electricity and then stored indefinitely and shipped relatively cheaply. We can all only hope that prices of wind/solar continue to drop, and governments around the world – especially China, the US, and India – have enough governmental/institutional strength to overcome corporate and government corruption and rein in their use of coal power in the coming years.
- rmason 11y agoExplain then why Canada isn't producing more aluminum? They have vast untapped hydro power resources.
- dgemm 11y agoCanada is the 3rd largest producer of aluminum.