<
https://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-08-25/the-lightbulb-of-the-21st-century-the-battery-revolution-illuminates-a-new-era.html>
"Thomas Alva Edison took all the credit in 1879, but the invention originated a
long time before that. Seventy years earlier, Humphry Davy, originally from
Cornwall in the United Kingdom, had managed to fix a thin strip of carbon
between the two poles of a battery. Thus was born the first lightbulb: an
invention that would allow humans to live at night, while exponentially
multiplying the uses of electricity.
Today, more than two centuries later, another revolution is brewing in the
world of batteries. Increasingly advanced energy storage systems hold the key
to a true paradigm shift, both when it comes to economic growth and climate
change.
The last step toward the definitive explosion of renewables and mass
electrification is about to be completed. The technological acceleration, the
growing economies of scale, and the proliferation of manufacturers (some even
warn of the risk of overcapacity) have drastically reduced the price of
batteries. Today, they cost, on average, a little less than 50% of what they
did just 18 months ago, and 90% less than a decade ago. A drastic drop of
unimaginable proportions, which has opened up opportunities on two key fronts:
battery-powered vehicles and the decarbonization of the electricity generation
sector.
Batteries — the icing on the renewable cake — will be the grave of oil, coal
and natural gas, the fossil fuel troika responsible for the climate crisis.
This is firstly because they’ll allow for the definitive electrification of
road transportation. Traveling by road, especially when it involves
low-tonnage, will be electric, or it won’t happen at all. Goodbye, then, to
diesel and gasoline; first in cars and, shortly afterwards, also in trucks and
long-distance buses.
“By 2040, kids will think of words like ‘coal,’ ‘gas’ or ‘oil’ as so ancient
and archaic,” wrote Assaad Razzouk, author of
Saving the Planet Without the
Bullshit: What They Don’t Tell You About the Climate Crisis (2022), on his
social media accounts in June. This is perhaps a bit optimistic, but it points
in an unequivocal direction: compared to their current omnipresence, in a few
decades, oil and gas should be limited to very specific uses, mostly
industrial. In parallel, global demand for batteries, according to BloombergNEF
figures, will increase fivefold by 2035, from just under 1.2 gigawatt hours
(GWh) to more than 5.8.
“[Batteries’] impact on demand for fossil fuels is going to be enormous,” says
Francisco Blanch, head of global commodities and equity derivatives at Bank of
America. “Until now, there was only one way to store energy: in the form of
hydrocarbons. That’s no longer the case: clean energy can now be stored in
batteries. This will drastically reduce gas and oil consumption,” he adds, on
the phone with EL PAÍS from New York City. “When electric cars soon offer
ranges of [620 miles] and very fast recharges at affordable prices… who’s going
to want a car [with an internal combustion engine]?” he asks rhetorically."
Via
Fix the News:
https://fixthenews.com/ritual-technology/
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
