SMART ENERGY
At the latest iteration of the UN climate change summit ( COP27 ), one of the main themes was centred around the need for energy storage to accommodate the transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources . More specifically , the event , which was held from 7th to 18th November 2022 in Egypt , uncovered assumptions that lithium-ion batteries were solely responsible for energy storage .
It was argued , however , that due to current lithium shortages amid rising demand , those presumptions were unfounded and unlikely . Besides , the International Energy Agency predicts that the situation could worsen with global shortages of the metal occurring as soon as 2025 . This falls in line with the possibility that EV demand could treble within the same time frame . For example , global EV purchases rose to 6.6mn in 2021 , a jump of 3.6mn from 2020 , accounting for 9 % of the market and all the growth of worldwide car sales , which reached 66.7mn in 2021 .
According to figures from the Argonne National Laboratory of science and engineering research , a battery pack for one electric vehicle would require around 8kg of lithium , an amount which , soon , may not be possible to extract by 2030 if no ways of recycling the metal are found . It ’ s a classic case of supply struggling to meet demand – one which has also resulted in skyrocketing lithium prices - but there are some alternatives to lithium which have the potential to accommodate energy storage and be more cost effective .
40 December 2022