flacaltenn
Diamond Member
Nat gas is not too expensive outside of BPA and even up there -- you NEED nat gas plants to stabilize the grid against wind/solar because modulating a "super-dam" output is WAY too slow to respond.
No idea what you mean by EVs "are all but un-metered"? Adds two days to your weekly household energy consumption to charge ONE for MODERATE use. More if more people commute. That's SIGNIFICANT load increase to the Grid. A LOT MORE if you're stupid enough to try and convert HEAVY vehicles like trucks 18 wheelers, large delivery vans.
Of course I did -- I summarized the research I've done to write a "position paper" on the subject. You'll need to come up to speed yourself.
From an engineering POV, there's too much packaging from the multiple layers of PACKAGING on high density, well producted battery plants. In an EV -- you have to work thru THREE LAYERS of packaging to get to the very FEW OUNCES of useful material to BE recycled. For larger Grid Scale storage battery recycling -- it's even worse. It''s not like scavenging a lead acid battery or even electronic device power packs.
It will NEVER be profitable until the days we run short of lithium, cobalt, etc. And it will always be a money LOSING, EXTREMELY dirty and dangerous, NON-SUSTAINABLE enviro disaster if you literally accept the plans of the mental midgets who are INTENT on killing off ALL the current grid power sources and replacing all that PLUS THE EXTRA CAPACITY from the transport sector with just wind and solar.
The Afterlife of Electric Vehicles: Battery Recycling and Repurposing - IER
By 2040, more than half of new-car sales and a third of the global fleet—equal to 559 million vehicles—is projected…
www.instituteforenergyresearch.org
Batteries can be recycled through smelting, direct recovery, and other, newer processes. A smelting process is used to recover many minerals (e.g. lithium, cobalt, nickel) contained in the battery. After a battery is smelted, the lithium ends up as a mixed byproduct and extracting it is costly. While the cost of fully recycling a lithium-ion battery is about €1 per kilogram, the value of the raw minerals reclaimed from the process is only about a third of that.Another way to look at the cost of extraction of lithium from old batteries is that it is 5 times more expensive than mined lithium.
One of the premier EV battery recycling companies is Li-Cycle, a Canada-based company that uses advanced recycling technologies that can recover up to 100 percent of lithium from lithium-ion batteries. In the United States, California-based Redwood Materials and Retriev Technologies also recycle materials from old batteries. OnTo Technology, based in Oregon, is also pioneering advanced battery recycling processes.
As these advanced technology processes continue to develop, reusing batteries offers another route to their disposal and productivity. Many electric vehicle batteries which are ‘spent’ still have up to 70 percent of their capacity left– more than enough for other uses. After used electric vehicle batteries have been broken down, tested, and re-packaged, they can be used for things like home energy storage.
Manufacturers like Nissan and Renault are using old batteries to provide new services. In Japan, Nissan repurposed batteries to power streetlights. Renault has batteries backing up elevators in Paris. And GM is backing up its data center in Michigan with used Chevy Volt batteries. Old batteries can also be useful for storing solar energy and backing up traditional electrical grids. In addition, private companies like the UK-based Powervault and Australia-based Aceleron have created technologies that can turn batteries into home electricity storage units, electric bike batteries, and other tools.
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The problem with repurposing is that once a battery approaches something like 70% of capacity -- it's "after-life" for repurposing FADES AWAY very quickly - maybe 1/3 as long as the time it took to degrade to 70%.. So you have the money and enviro costs of rebuilding "after life"battery packs, multiple transportation costs and THEN the final TOXIC WASTE disposal costs. It's a Rube Goldberg kind of maze solution to FORCE wind/solar to be the PRIMARY grid generators for both CURRENT DEMAND LOAD and the increased FUTURE demand that includes a 33% (or more) kind of overall INCREASE in grid generation to support VEHICLES from where we are NOW !!!!
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