In the transition to so-called clean and green electricity, critical minerals and metals create new challenges for electricity security. [emphasis, links added]
The construction of solar power plants, wind farms and electric vehicles generally requires more minerals than fossil fuel power plants. A typical electric car requires six times the mineral inputs of a conventional carand a Onshore wind farms require nine times more mineral resources than gas-fired power plants.
Since 2010, as the share of wind and solar renewable energy in new investment has risen, the average amount of minerals required per unit of new electricity generation has increased by 50%.
Our electricity is increasingly reliant on rare earth minerals and metals mined for wind turbines, solar panels and electric car batteries, while slaves and environmental conditions in other countries are ignored by energy departments and bureaucrats.
China controls 80% of the world’s supply monopoly of rare earth minerals and metals, while Africa’s Congo has 90% of important cobalt sources.
Judging from the total composition of electric vehicle batteries, graphite accounts for approximately 25% to 28% of the entire electric vehicle battery. Türkiye has the largest graphite reserves, followed by Brazil and China.
The total graphite reserves of these three countries account for 66% of global graphite reserves.
What everyone should be concerned about is that all of these “blood minerals” come from mining in places around the world that environmentalists, policymakers, or electric vehicle buyers have never seen.
For example, to make each electric vehicle battery, you must process 25,000 pounds of brine to produce lithium, 30,000 pounds of ore to produce cobalt, 5,000 pounds of ore to produce nickel, and 25,000 pounds of ore to produce copper.
All told, just one Tesla EV battery requires more than 500,000 pounds of material to be processed somewhere on Earth.
Heavy-duty electric truck batteries can weigh up to 16,000 pounds, which is 16 times the weight of a Tesla battery!
A truck battery requires 8,000,000 pounds of earth to be dug out. This is so shocking – Eight million pounds of soil dug for each truck battery!
Policymakers formulating “green” policies ignore the reality that electricity only emerged with the discovery of oil 200 years ago.
- All hydro, coal, natural gas, nuclear, wind and solar power are built with products, parts and equipment made from petroleum derivatives produced from crude oil.
- In addition, all cars, trucks, excavation equipment, cranes, commercial ships, airplanes and trains are also made from petroleum derivatives made from crude oil.
Our advanced society uses oil-derived commodities made from black crude oil to fuel large jets, ships, and space launches, and uses oil to create 6,000 products that did not exist 200 years ago. If we were not such an advanced society, we would not need so-called “Big Oil”.
More than three and a half years into his presidency, Biden has promised from the start “whole-of-government” regulation to force a shift away from fossil fuels and towards “green” electricity.
Demand for petroleum products puts pressure on supply chains, driving up the cost of fossil fuel products and fuels to meet society's material needs.
Most importantly, there is a reality of loss The primary use of crude oil is not to generate electricity, but to create derivative commodities and fuels, which are all ingredients that economies and lifestyles need to survive and thrive.that is, all products that did not exist before the 1800s.
None of the six methods of generating electricity can produce anything to support material society!
Electricity can charge an iPhone, but it cannot make an iPhone. Electricity can make a hospital defibrillator work, but it cannot make a defibrillator work.
Products that require electricity, such as iPhones, defibrillators, computers, data centers and X-ray machines, also rely on petrochemicals made from crude oil to make all the parts for various ways of generating electricity.
Looking back at the history of the oil industry, it shows that dark, crude crude oil is effectively useless unless it can be manufactured (in refineries) into petroleum derivatives, which are now the basis of transportation fuels. The basis for products such as chips, plastics, lubricants and pharmaceuticals that are critical to supporting modern lifestyles.
“Big Oil” only exists because richer countries are addicted to products and fuels made from fossil fuels that make our lives more comfortable.
Our need for smaller, faster electronics, bigger, faster planes, ships, and outer space launches is the only reason we need crude oil.
So before we rail against “Big Oil,” we must ask ourselves: “How dare I keep asking for products and fuels made from petroleum to make my life more comfortable?”
Rick Amato's 8-Minute Conversation on Politics and Profit with Ronald Stein, an 8-minute video conversation on Your America TV, reveals this fact: Those pursuing net-zero emissions may be overlooking the fact that wind turbines and solar panels are used for different purposes than crude oil. “Forced emissions (only in rich countries) Achieving net zero emissions is a fool’s game.
The occasional addition of giant wind turbine blades and solar panels to generate electricity is the “green” scam of the century, because “renewable energy” is increasing the demand for fossil fuels, but those so-called renewable energy sources cannot produce any of the things that form the basis of our physical world. product.
Top image created by AI using DALL·E, concept proposed by CCD editor Thomas Richard.
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