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It sounds like the battery issues aren't even completely within Tesla's control - you try sourcing that much lithium! ...seriously, I'm sorta worried about our
by leggomylibro 9y ago
It sounds like the battery issues aren't even completely within Tesla's control - you try sourcing that much lithium!
...seriously, I'm sorta worried about our continued access to enough lithium for all this electric technology that's rapidly emerging. Counterarguments?
- Avshalom 9y agoThere's no shortage of lithium, just lithium at the current price point. Like with oilsand it should get to a sufficient price to encourage investment in extraction technology and then price will drop.
- mtgx 9y agoYes, the issue is being overblown. It's the "we're reaching peak oil" debate of 30 years ago. We're still nowhere near peak oil (supply).
- SubiculumCode 9y agoIf lithium prices get too high, then SpaceX will have a financial incentive to get space-based lithium mining from asteroids in production, probably using Boring tech. :)
- leggomylibro 9y agoThat's a good point...it's not like it's a super heavy metal that only gets born in the bellies of colliding neutron stars or something.
- rsynnott 9y agoCurrent world production is only 36,000 tonnes per year. Chile alone has 7.5 million tonnes known reserves. So 200 years of current requirements, known, in one country. And the lithium doesn’t just go away. Lithium batteries can be recycled, though in practice it is currently often cheaper to just mine more lithium.
- starky 9y agoThe values I heard some years ago (~10) was that there were well over 1000 years of known lithium reserves even when assuming some truly impressive rates of electric vehicle production and zero recycling.
- leggomylibro 9y agoCoolio, so we just have to scale up? Phew!