Category: NEWS_ARCHIVE TRANSPORTATION_BATTERIES_MN

The U.S. is hoping to reduce its dependence on other countries for key minerals amid the EV and energy grid transition.

How much more valuable can electric vehicles be if their batteries can be tapped to power homes, other buildings or the grid at large? And are those extra benefits worth the costs and complications of getting the technologies and policies in place to make EV bidirectional charging possible at large scale?

As the bankers from J.P. Morgan’s London offices stepped off the two-hour private flight from Johannesburg onto the hot runway, soldiers sporting sunglasses and semiautomatics watched them closely. The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s brutal civil war had ended several years earlier, but peace remained tenuous, and the Lubumbashi airstrip was still heavily militarized.

Despite expectations that lithium demand will rise from approximately 500,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) in 2021 to some three million to four million metric tons in 2030, we believe that the lithium industry will be able to provide enough product to supply the burgeoning lithium-ion battery industry. Alongside increasing the conventional lithium supply, which is expected to expand by over 300 percent between 2021 and 2030, direct lithium extraction (DLE) and direct lithium to product (DLP) can be the driving forces behind the industry’s ability to respond more swiftly to soaring demand. Although DLE and DLP technol­ogies are still in their infancy and subject to volatility given the industry’s “hockey stick”1 demand growth and lead times, they offer significant promise of increasing supply, reducing the industry’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) foot­print, and lowering costs, with already announced capacity contributing to around 10 percent of the 2030 lithium supply, as well as to other less advanced projects in the pipeline.

With gas prices glug-glugging to new highs and many commuters heading back to offices, demand for electric vehicles is spiking in some places (though not everywhere, and supplies are tight). For new owners of electric vehicles, and those who are seriously considering making a purchase, a central characteristic of EVs is also their most mysterious: that big, car-moving battery.

A state-owned utility in Australia has picked Tesla Inc's (TSLA.O) Megapack batteries for a A$150 million ($113 million) energy storage project to back up wind and solar power, the state government of Queensland said on Wednesday.

The results of this experiment are making a potent point about the nation’s clean energy future, demonstrating vehicle-to-building power supply for controlling electricity costs and extending the reach of wind and solar power, according to David Slutzky, founder and chief executive of Fermata Energy, developer of the software that manages the power transfer.

A few years ago, the thought of using the batteries in electric vehicles (EVs) to provide vehicle-to-grid (V2G), vehicle-to-microgrid or vehicle-to-home power was just an idea, maybe even a wild idea.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shaken the global market for nickel just as the metal gains importance as an ingredient in electric car batteries, raising fears that high prices could slow the transition away from fossil fuels.

With the transition to electric vehicles (EVs), demand for materials used to produce batteries is expected to increase dramatically. Aside from the lithium needed to produce modern lithium-ion batteries, much attention is focused on the cost of the materials used for EV battery cathode production. Cobalt is an important ingredient in lithium-ion battery cathode production, accounting for about a quarter of the cost of the battery. The price for cobalt spiked to $40 per pound in 2018, but returned to $25 dollars per pound in 2021, while the next most expensive material was nickel at $9 per pound in 2021. Due to the high cost and price volatility associated with cobalt, battery manufacturers/researchers are seeking alternatives to reduce or eliminate the need for cobalt in battery production.