{"id":57986,"date":"2021-05-22T07:32:02","date_gmt":"2021-05-22T12:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=57986"},"modified":"2021-05-22T07:32:02","modified_gmt":"2021-05-22T12:32:02","slug":"lithium-cobalt-and-rare-earths-the-post-petroleum-resource-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=57986","title":{"rendered":"Lithium, Cobalt, and Rare Earths: the Post-Petroleum Resource Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lithium, Cobalt, and Rare Earths: the Post-Petroleum Resource Race<\/a><\/h3>\n
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Thanks to its very name \u2014 renewable energy \u2014 we can picture a time in the not-too-distant future when our need for non-renewable fuels like oil, natural gas, and coal will vanish. Indeed, the Biden administration has\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0a breakthrough target of 2035 for fully eliminating U.S. reliance on those non-renewable fuels for the generation of electricity. That would be accomplished by \u201cdeploying carbon-pollution-free electricity-generating resources,\u201d primarily the everlasting power of the wind and sun.<\/p>\n

With other nations moving in a similar direction, it\u2019s tempting to conclude that the days when competition over finite supplies of energy was a recurring source of conflict will soon draw to a close. Unfortunately, think again: while the sun and wind are indeed infinitely renewable, the materials needed to convert those resources into electricity \u2014 minerals like cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel, and the rare-earth elements, or REEs \u2014 are anything but. Some of them, in fact, are far scarcer than petroleum, suggesting that global strife over vital resources may not, in fact, disappear in the Age of Renewables.<\/p>\n

To appreciate this unexpected paradox, it\u2019s necessary to explore how wind and solar power are converted into usable forms of electricity and propulsion. Solar power is largely collected by photovoltaic cells, often deployed in vast arrays, while the wind is harvested by giant turbines, typically deployed in extensive wind farms. To use electricity in transportation, cars and trucks must be equipped with advanced batteries capable of holding a charge over long distances. Each one of these devices\u00a0uses<\/a>substantial amounts of copper for electrical transmission, as well as a variety of other non-renewable minerals. Those wind turbines, for instance, require manganese, molybdenum, nickel, zinc, and rare-earth elements for their electrical generators, while electric vehicles (EVs) need cobalt, graphite, lithium, manganese, and rare earths for their engines and batteries.<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lithium, Cobalt, and Rare Earths: the Post-Petroleum Resource Race Thanks to its very name \u2014 renewable energy \u2014 we can picture a time in the not-too-distant future when our need for non-renewable fuels like oil, natural gas, and coal will vanish. Indeed, the Biden administration has\u00a0announced\u00a0a breakthrough target of 2035 for fully eliminating U.S. reliance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5],"tags":[2357,5493,1406,11761,25988,674,681,862],"class_list":["post-57986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","category-geopolitics","tag-competition","tag-counterpunch","tag-green-energy","tag-michael-t-klare","tag-rare-earth-minerals-2","tag-renewable-energy","tag-resources","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57986"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57987,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57986\/revisions\/57987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}