A Cobalt Crisis Could Put the Brakes on Electric Car Sales

Electric vehicle sales are soaring, with factories working full-pelt to churn out as many batteries as possible. And that’s creating some bottlenecks.

Cobalt is one of the most expensive metals in EV batteries.
And we simply may not have enough supply.

Global production of electric vehicles is predicted to top four million cars globally this year, rising to 12 million in 2025. In Europe alone, 540,000 electric cars will be sold this year, an increase from 319,000 last year. For that to happen, we don’t just need gigafactories to build the batteries but also need to get hold of the key materials, notably lithium and cobalt—and the gold rush on both has already begun.

Last week, The Times reported that Jaguar Land Rover would pause production on the I-Pace, pinning the blame on shortages at battery maker LG Chem. Mercedes halved its 2020 production goals after shortages with the same supplier. "Currently EV uptake is arguably being constrained more by lack of manufacturing capacity than anything else," says Paul Anderson, co-director of the Birmingham Centre for Strategic Elements and Critical Materials. "Lack of battery manufacturing capacity is a key part of this, which is why there is the rush to build gigafactories.”

Read the story from Wired - “A Cobalt Crisis Could Put the Brakes on Electric Car Sales.”

Coalition loses the plot as window closes on fantasy coal plans

Giles Parkison.

Craig Kelly hasn’t been very noisy of late – too preoccupied, it seems, on filling his Facebook page with some of the biggest nonsense you will find anywhere about climate hoaxes, renewables and batteries.

This week, however, he couldn’t help himself, when it was revealed that a consortium comprising a couple of two-bit companies from western Sydney and the Cayman Islands and a Chinese backer had agreed to explore a plan to build some new coal-fired generators in the Hunter Valley.

Never mind that this could never happen – the proposed site is too close to a hospital and homes, and it has not even filed a DA, yet alone considered a business plan or a market opportunity.

Read the RenewEconomy story by Giles Parkinson - “Coalition loses the plot as window closes on fantasy coal plans.”

Big Diesel-Burning Pickup Trucks Are Paying for GM’s Electric Future

The vehicles that will secure the next decade for General Motors Co. aren’t covered in self-driving sensors or loaded with batteries. No, the future depends on hulking pickup trucks that often run on diesel and cost more than the average BMW.

Sales of heavy-duty pickups like the 2020 Chevrolet
Silverado are paying for General Motors to invest
billions into electric vehicles and driverless technology.

That’s the irony at the heart of GM’s event this week at its sprawling factory in Flint, Michigan, where the next iterations of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra will be introduced. These revamped heavy-duty pickups, which go on sale in June, feature advanced, lightweight materials and fuel-efficient engines but none of the technology that will supposedly shape the next era of the auto industry. Yet in Detroit that future can’t exist without the profit margins generated by classic pickup trucks.

Read the story from Bloomberg by David Welch - “Big Diesel-Burning Pickup Trucks Are Paying for GM’s Electric Future.”

Falling renewable costs 'chilling' for fossil fuels

The rapidly falling cost of renewable energy and batteries is "chilling" for the future of the fossil fuels sector, raising doubts about the viability of new coal power stations.

The combination of batteries and wind farms
is providing more power flexibility.

A Bloomberg New Energy Finance report has found the price of renewables has fallen by almost a fifth over the last year, with wind and solar generators becoming cheaper than both coal and gas-fired power stations.

Elena Giannakopoulou, head of energy economics at BNEF, said the rapidly falling cost of renewable generation and battery power is changing the game for the electricity sector.

"The conclusions are chilling for the fossil fuel sector," she said.

Read Cole Latimer’s story from The Sydney Morning Herald - “Falling renewable costs 'chilling' for fossil fuels.”

Victoria to turn to Tesla battery power in time for next summer

Two large lithium-ion batteries will be built and connected to the grid in regional Victoria this year, giving the state’s west a significant renewable energy boost in time for next summer.

Two large-scale batteries will be built in Kerang and Ballarat this year.

The batteries, which will store solar and wind-generated energy,  will be built near Ballarat and Kerang and will have a combined generation capacity of 55 MW and a combined energy storage of 80 megawatt-hours – giving them more than half the power of South Australia's gigantic 100MW Tesla battery.

Read Adam Carey’s story from The Age - “Victoria to turn to Tesla battery power in time for next summer.”

Virtual power plants are in vogue, but they can be like taking a sledgehammer to a nut

The fleet of small-scale solar systems, batteries and flexible loads in our electricity system will grow rapidly in coming years. But how to coordinate them efficiently in our complex electricity grid, and how to make sure their owners get a fair return?

Sculpture-like solar panels near the Adelaide Festival
Centre, Adelaide, South Australia, SA, Australia.

Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) are the talk of the town right now. But they may turn out to be like using a sledgehammer on a walnut. More nuanced systems are being developed to integrate large numbers of small-scale solar systems and batteries into the grid. If successful, they will be able to apply market principles to deploy and reward these so-called distributed energy resources.

Read the piece on The Conversation - “Virtual power plants are in vogue, but they can be like taking a sledgehammer to a nut.”

Elon Musk's Tesla and SA Labor reach deal to give solar panels and batteries to 50,000 homes

At least 50,000 homes in SA will be given solar panels and batteries in a scheme by Elon Musk's Tesla and the SA Government to build the world's largest virtual power plant, slashing household power bills in the process.

Elon Musk and Jay Weatherill reach a deal to give
 batteries and solar panels to 50,000 homes.

Under the deal unveiled by Premier Jay Weatherill ahead of the March state election, solar systems and batteries will be supplied and installed free of charge.

The cost of the project will be financed through the sale of electricity, generated by the panels, in what Mr Weatherill said would be the largest project of its kind.

Read the ABC News story by Nick Hansen - “Elon Musk's Tesla and SA Labor reach deal to give solar panels and batteries to 50,000 homes.”

Renewable energy investment 'bonanza' is coming to Australia, experts say

Investment experts say Australia is fast becoming an attractive destination for large-scale batteries and renewable investment, which should ultimately bring down the costs of gas and electricity for households.

Tesla's lithium-ion battery's success in SA has
drawn the eyes of the global investment community.

The world's second-most powerful battery could be built in the Top End as part of a plan to produce more renewable energy for the Northern Territory, following the installation of Elon Musk's 100-megawatt battery in South Australia.

The Climate Council has called it a renewable investment bonanza.

"We will see I think a boom over the next decade in battery storage and also solar thermal, we're starting to see that play out now in South Australia," the Climate Council's Andrew Stock said.

Mr Musk drew plenty of media attention when he announced he would build a 100-megawatt battery in South Australia.

Read David Taylor’s ABC News story - “Renewable energy investment 'bonanza' is coming to Australia, experts say.”

Renewable Energy Isn’t Perfect, But It’s Far Better Than Fossil Fuels

In their efforts to discredit renewable energy and support continued fossil fuel burning, many anti-environmentalists have circulated a dual image purporting to compare a lithium mine with an oilsands operation. It illustrates the level of dishonesty to which some will stoop to keep us on our current polluting, climate-disrupting path (although in some cases it could be ignorance).

The image is a poor attempt to prove that lithium batteries and renewable energy are worse for the environment than energy from oilsands bitumen. The first problem is that the “lithium mine” is actually BHP Billiton’s Escondida copper mine in Chile (the world’s largest). The bottom image is of an Alberta oilsands operation, but it’s an in situ underground facility and doesn’t represent the enormous open-pit mining operations used to extract most bitumen.

Lithium is used in batteries for electric cars, cellphones, computers and other electric devices, as well as power-grid storage systems, because it’s light and highly conductive. Most lithium isn’t mined. More than 95 per cent comes from pumping underground brine into pans, allowing the liquid to evaporate and separating out the lithium using electrolysis.

Read the Desmog story by David Suzuki - “Renewable Energy Isn’t Perfect, But It’s Far Better Than Fossil Fuels.”

(As with other such stories commenting about electric vehicles and their environmental implications, and then compare them to fossil fuel powered vehicles, rarely is any attempt made to discuss the energy-rich infrastructure that supports privately owned vehicles; electric, fossil fuel powered or otherwise. 

Yes, we need to rid the world of fossil fuel powered vehicles now and turn, just as quickly as we can, to electric vehicles, powered by sun, but they must be integrated and used through a publicly owned and operated infrastructure - Robert McLean)

Battery storage proponents despondent about future under National Energy Guarantee

Some in the fledgling tech-metals mining and processing industry are dismayed that the Federal Government's new energy policy does not appear to support renewable energy storage such as batteries.

The flow battery, also known as a redox battery, is made
 with vanadium, another tech-metal found in Australia.

Australian Vanadium chief executive Vincent Algar said the National Energy Guarantee (NEG) unfairly pitted the batteries and renewable energy storage sector against fossil fuel electricity producers such as oil and gas.

"With coal and gas considered a dispatchable energy source under the NEG, what incentive will there be to source dispatchable energy from a battery?" he said.

Dispatchable power can be turned on and off and used immediately as needed.

The NEG will mandate that energy retailers need to buy a certain amount of energy from dispatchable sources, which include coal, gas, and pumped hydroelectricity storage.

Read the ABC News story by Babs McHugh - “Battery storage proponents despondent about future under National Energy Guarantee.”

Salt could supercharge storage batteries

Humble salt could replace lithium-ion batteries as an energy storage source for a fifth of the cost, and without the ethical concerns, according to new research.

The University of Wollongong's Shulei Chou
demonstrating a sodium-ion energy battery. 

A Stanford University study into sodium-ion (Na-ion) battery technology has demonstrated the potential of these batteries to displace lithium-ion, which requires rarer, and more difficult to obtain materials.

The research has found a way to dramatically increase the energy efficiency of the new batteries to more than 87 per cent, but at less than 80 per cent the cost of lithium-ion batteries with equivalent storage capacities.

The new materials would also spare the ethical concerns that can come with lithium-ion due to the locations of mines for the raw minerals.

Read Cole Latimer’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Salt could supercharge storage batteries.”

‘Going gangbusters': Solar surge has only just begun and batteries' charge close behind

Solar energy's surge is only just getting started in Australia as utilities join the rush to a source of power that is now far cheaper than new coal plants, a report by the Climate Council finds.

The report also comes as the world's biggest supplier of batteries, Warren Buffett-backed China's BYD, marks out Australia as its second market to target consumers anxious to shield themselves from rising electricity prices.

Read Peter Hannam story in today’s Melbourne Age - “‘Going gangbusters': Solar surge has only just begun and batteries' charge close behind.”

Elon Musk thinks we need a 'popular uprising' against the fossil fuel industry

Elon Musk - calling for a popular uprising
against the fossil fuel industry.

“The fossil fuel industry is the biggest industry in the world,” billionaire SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in an interview for the National Geographic documentary “Before the Flood.”

The film features interviews with scientists, policy makers, and others working to combat the emissions that are dangerously destabilizing our climate.

Musk discussed his vision for a global shift toward more localised, clean energy system of solar panels and batteries.

But he said the power of the fossil fuel sector represents a significant concern.

Read the Business Insider story - “Elon Musk thinks we need a 'popular uprising' against the fossil fuel industry.”

'Energy positive' house opens in Wales

B

ritain’s first low cost ‘energy positive’ house, which can generate more electricity than its occupants will use, opens on Thursday despite George Osborne axing plans to make house builders meet tough low carbon housing targets from next year.

The modest three-bedroom house built in just 16 weeks on an industrial estate outside Bridgend in Wales cost just £125,000 to build and, said its Cardiff University designers, will let occupants use the sun to pay the rent.

Using batteries to store the electricity which it generates from the solar panels that function as the roof, and having massive amounts of insulation to reduce energy use in winter months, it should be able to export electricity to the national grid for eight months of the year.

Read the Guardian story - “Britain's first 'energy positive'house opens in Wales”.

Moving to Tatura to join 'Play in the Piazza'

Saturday’s Beneath the Wisteria will be a part of Tatura’s Play in the Piazza.

Transitions Tatura stages the Play in the Piazza with the aim of encouraging people, especially children, to engage with fun things without needing electricity or batteries.

This year’s Play in the Piazza is affiliated with the Sustainable Living Festival and among other things will host our usual monthly Beneath the Wisteria.

Convenor, Robert McLean, said this week’s event will reflect upon and consider what George Marshall said when he spoke at a Slap Tomorrow event in Shepparton only last week.

As usual, Saturday’s Beneath the Wisteria will start at 11:00am is open to all and is free. Seating is limited and so people are encouraged to bring their folding chair.

Questions about Saturday can be directed to Robert at 0400 502 199.