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We raise taxes on fossil fuels, and then what? More investment in intermittent sources works until peak production is saturated. But now thanks to fuel taxes, l
by Manuel_D 3y ago
We raise taxes on fossil fuels, and then what? More investment in intermittent sources works until peak production is saturated. But now thanks to fuel taxes, lithium becomes a lot more expensive to mine since the heavy machinery is more expensive to fuel. Taxes on fossil fuels would reduce emissions, mostly by contracting the economy. It doesn't translate into more storage build out, and it certainly doesn't solve the orders-of-magnitude mismatch between the amount of storage available and the amount of storage required to smooth out intermittent sources.
- Retric 3y agoRaw lithium is a small fraction of the cost of battery, using recent costs your looking at ~4% of total battery price from low purity lithium. People focus on it because of the name rather than nickel-cobalt-manganese or whatever the specific chemistry actually used. They also confuse mining costs with manufacturing costs when looking at ultra pure lithium ready for use in batteries but that’s like conflating the cost of 99.999% pure monocrystalline silicon with the cost of silicon in glass. Batteries don’t need much Lithium and the stuff is more abundant than lead, tin, iodine, mercury, etc.
- Manuel_D 3y agoCathode material is half the cost of a lithium battery. Manufacturing is only 24%. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/breaking-down-the-cost-of-an-ev-battery-cell/ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/breaking-down-the-cost-of-a...
- Retric 3y ago“The cathode material determines the capacity and power of a battery, typically composed of lithium and other battery metals.” Also, the cost of a battery cell isn’t the cost of a battery pack, let alone the cost of all the associated equipment, land, installation, etc needed for grid scale batteries which is what matters here.