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0 pointsC4K34y ago0 comments

Lithium batteries are used on the grid, for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_Energy_Storage

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It's great that this is being experimented with, and this doesn't look like a solution that is ready to be deployed at scale.

What is the carbon emissions per kwh, cost per kwh, etc. I'm not saying that the company building this needs to give those answers.

But if this is part of the solution for climate change, those things will need to be known and reasonable.

bryanlarsen4y ago

> What is the carbon emissions per kwh

The raw materials are lithium, potassium and iron. All are abundant but require significant energy to extract. So if we have a clean grid they can be produced with almost no carbon emissions. So if using "dirty" batteries is necessary to create the clean grid, it's still a massive win.

99_004y ago

>if we have a clean grid they can be produced with almost no carbon emissions

Everything is possible. But not everything is practical.

Energy density matters. Especially in industrial applications.

For example, electric passenger vehicles are a great solution because the weight of passengers is negligible.

Electric semis hauling freight? Not so much. The payload has to be reduced by a significant amount because the battery is so damn big.

I don't know what the extraction process involves, but I've been to a few mines. Truck, the size of a house moving massive loads. And lots of big stationary machines, which I assume are already electric powdered.

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99_004y ago

It's great that this is being experimented with, and this doesn't look like a solution that is ready to be deployed at scale.

What is the carbon emissions per kwh, cost per kwh, etc. I'm not saying that the company building this needs to give those answers.

But if this is part of the solution for climate change, those things will need to be known and reasonable.

bryanlarsen4y ago

> What is the carbon emissions per kwh

99_004y ago

>if we have a clean grid they can be produced with almost no carbon emissions

Everything is possible. But not everything is practical.

Energy density matters. Especially in industrial applications.

For example, electric passenger vehicles are a great solution because the weight of passengers is negligible.

Electric semis hauling freight? Not so much. The payload has to be reduced by a significant amount because the battery is so damn big.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse