You want green energy, eh?
How about these facts:
The International Energy Agency and other experts report that electric vehicles have six times more metals by weight than their internal combustion counterparts. Photovoltaic solar panels require six times more metals and minerals (other than steel and aluminum) per megawatt than a combined-cycle gas turbine that generates electricity pretty much 24/7/365; they also require at least 100 times more land area.
Weather-dependent, intermittent onshore wind turbines need 9-10 times more than a CCGT, and offshore wind turbines require fourteen times more raw materials.
For every 100,000 tons of copper (enough for 2,275 gigantic 12-MW offshore wind turbines), companies would have to blast and extract nearly 60,000,000 tons of ore and overlying rock and then use heat and chemicals to process almost 23,000,000 tons of ore. Every step involves fossil fuels.
Nickel for powerful nickel-cobalt-aluminum and nickel-manganese-cobalt EV batteries is found mainly in Indonesia, where companies mine the ore using diesel-powered equipment and send it to smelters fueled by coal. Once fully operational, a single nickel-processing industrial park in eastern Indonesia will burn more coal per year than Brazil.
Cobalt for cobalt-lithium batteries comes mostly from the Democratic Republic of Congo, involves extensive child and near-slave labor.
One cannot help but wonder what happens when greenie politicians realize their grand scheme to save Planet Earth from a manmade climate crisis actually results in possibly spewing out more greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.
How about these facts:
The International Energy Agency and other experts report that electric vehicles have six times more metals by weight than their internal combustion counterparts. Photovoltaic solar panels require six times more metals and minerals (other than steel and aluminum) per megawatt than a combined-cycle gas turbine that generates electricity pretty much 24/7/365; they also require at least 100 times more land area.
Weather-dependent, intermittent onshore wind turbines need 9-10 times more than a CCGT, and offshore wind turbines require fourteen times more raw materials.
For every 100,000 tons of copper (enough for 2,275 gigantic 12-MW offshore wind turbines), companies would have to blast and extract nearly 60,000,000 tons of ore and overlying rock and then use heat and chemicals to process almost 23,000,000 tons of ore. Every step involves fossil fuels.
Nickel for powerful nickel-cobalt-aluminum and nickel-manganese-cobalt EV batteries is found mainly in Indonesia, where companies mine the ore using diesel-powered equipment and send it to smelters fueled by coal. Once fully operational, a single nickel-processing industrial park in eastern Indonesia will burn more coal per year than Brazil.
Cobalt for cobalt-lithium batteries comes mostly from the Democratic Republic of Congo, involves extensive child and near-slave labor.
One cannot help but wonder what happens when greenie politicians realize their grand scheme to save Planet Earth from a manmade climate crisis actually results in possibly spewing out more greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.
You want green energy, eh?
How about these facts:
The International Energy Agency and other experts report that electric vehicles have six times more metals by weight than their internal combustion counterparts. Photovoltaic solar panels require six times more metals and minerals (other than steel and aluminum) per megawatt than a combined-cycle gas turbine that generates electricity pretty much 24/7/365; they also require at least 100 times more land area.
Weather-dependent, intermittent onshore wind turbines need 9-10 times more than a CCGT, and offshore wind turbines require fourteen times more raw materials.
For every 100,000 tons of copper (enough for 2,275 gigantic 12-MW offshore wind turbines), companies would have to blast and extract nearly 60,000,000 tons of ore and overlying rock and then use heat and chemicals to process almost 23,000,000 tons of ore. Every step involves fossil fuels.
Nickel for powerful nickel-cobalt-aluminum and nickel-manganese-cobalt EV batteries is found mainly in Indonesia, where companies mine the ore using diesel-powered equipment and send it to smelters fueled by coal. Once fully operational, a single nickel-processing industrial park in eastern Indonesia will burn more coal per year than Brazil.
Cobalt for cobalt-lithium batteries comes mostly from the Democratic Republic of Congo, involves extensive child and near-slave labor.
One cannot help but wonder what happens when greenie politicians realize their grand scheme to save Planet Earth from a manmade climate crisis actually results in possibly spewing out more greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.
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