Tesla Battery, Subsidy, And Sustainability Fantasies
Published on September 19, 2017
*** ... the 100% solar world of the utopian future – would require 25,000 billion Watt-hours of battery power (ignoring future electricity needs to recharge electric vehicle batteries).
Replacing the gasoline in the tanks of 1.4 billion vehicles worldwide with electric power would require another 100,000 billion Watt-hours. That brings total global demand to well over 125,000 billion Wh of storage. That means it would take 1,250 years of production from every existing lithium battery factory worldwide to meet this combined demand. Or we would have to build 1,250 times more factories. Or we could build batteries that are 10 to 100 times more powerful and efficient than what we have today...
We would do well to raise – and answer – these and other essential questions now, before we let activists, journalists, legislators, and regulators con us into adopting more of their utopian, “planet-saving” ideas.
