https://www.ft.com/content/44230108-d980-446a-b5ca-81b175f8b47d
"Heatwaves, floods and droughts across the world are a wake-up call. We need to
cut fossil fuel use fast, reducing CO₂ emissions to around zero by the middle
of the century. To do that, we must electrify as much as possible, decarbonise
electricity supply and use hydrogen, bioenergy, and carbon capture in
applications where direct electricity use is not feasible.
Global electricity supply needs to expand by around four times; transmission
grids must grow from 70mn km to around 200mn km; we must boost electric cars
from 25mn to over 1bn. That implies big increases in mineral supply — seven
times more lithium will be used per annum than in 2022, with copper use
doubling.
Faced with this challenge, fears are multiplying — that mining will use huge
quantities of scarce water, high lithium prices will make electric vehicles
impossibly expensive or discarded solar panels will create a landfill disaster.
We need to separate myths from real concerns — the Energy Transitions
Commission’s latest report aims to do that.
One thing we don’t need to worry about is long-term supply: for all the key
minerals, known resources easily exceed total future requirements. And one to
place in context is the CO₂ or other greenhouse gases emitted when we use
fossil fuel energy to produce the materials required for the first generation
of wind turbines, solar panels, batteries and electrical equipment. These
emissions could amount to a cumulative 15-35 gigatonnes of CO₂ equivalent over
the next 30 years: but that compares with around 40 Gt CO₂ equivalent produced
every year by the fossil fuel based energy system.
Land and water needs are also manageable. The roughly 5bn cubic metres of water
needed annually for new mineral extraction compares with 2,700bn cubic metres
used in food and fibre production; and all the solar PV farms and mine sites
required would take up less than 2 per cent of the land area devoted to
agriculture. Red meat consumption threatens the world’s tropical rainforests;
batteries for electric vehicles do not."
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-poverty-india-democracy-us-restoration-china/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
