This won’t be a shock, since I’m virtually consistently happening about batteries—If you wish to learn extra on the subject, we have masses to select from on the location. You can begin right here, right here or right here.
Batteries are going to rework transportation and is also key in storing renewables like wind or solar energy for occasions when these sources aren’t out there. So in a means, they’re a central expertise for the 2 sectors liable for the largest share of emissions: vitality and transportation.
And if you wish to perceive what’s coming in batteries, it’s essential to take a look at what’s taking place proper now in battery supplies. The International Energy Agency simply launched a brand new report on the state of essential minerals in vitality, which has some fascinating battery-related tidbits. So for the e-newsletter this week, let’s dive into some knowledge about battery supplies.
So what’s new with battery supplies?
This most likely isn’t information to you, however EV gross sales are rising shortly—they made up 14% of worldwide new automobile gross sales in 2022 and can attain 18% in 2023, in keeping with the IEA. This international development is among the causes we right here at MIT Technology Review put “the inevitable EV” on our listing of breakthrough applied sciences this yr.
Add to the regular market development the truth that world wide, EV batteries are getting greater. That’s proper—not simply within the US, which is notorious for its large automobiles. The US nonetheless takes the cake for the biggest common battery capability, however the inflation of battery measurement is a worldwide phenomenon, with each Asia and Europe seeing an analogous or much more dramatic leap in recent times.
Add up the rising demand for EVs, a rising battery capability world wide, and toss within the position that batteries may play for storage on the grid, and it turns into clear that we’re about to see an enormous enhance in demand for the supplies we have to make batteries.
Take lithium, one of many key supplies utilized in lithium-ion batteries right now. If we’re going to construct sufficient EVs to succeed in net-zero emissions, lithium demand goes to extend roughly tenfold between now and 2040. Lithium is among the most dramatic examples, however different metals, like copper and nickel, are additionally going to be in excessive demand within the coming a long time (you possibly can mess around with the IEA’s knowledge explorer for your self right here).
We’re not going to expire of any of the supplies we have to generate renewable vitality, as I wrote earlier this yr. Batteries could possibly be a tighter situation, however total, consultants say that we do have sufficient sources on the planet to make the batteries we’d like. And as battery recycling ramps up, we should always finally get to a spot the place there’s a steady provide of supplies from outdated batteries.