I think folks are starting to wake up to the realisation that you have to store these renewables. Or you run out of power. “Batteries” has been the cry. Until now. And we know there’s just not enough of the exotic minerals these new-wave batteries are made of to make what we need. Apparently there’s not even enough to do batteries enough for the U.K. if its electricity were fully wind and solar. Let alone China. Or the world. What’s more: batteries are only good for short-term storage.
So they (we) need Long-Duration Energy Storage (LDES). Like storage in dams, which are filled when there’s spare power and emptied when there’s no renewable available. This is costly and takes a lot of time.
That’s why I — and many scientists, environmentalists, and other Dane people — are saying, why all the faffimg around, when you (we) could just have nuclear. Clean, reliable, safe. And always on!
ADDED: 2nd para above says that lithium battery output in China “surged by70% to 957 gigawatt-hours". This is barely 0.011% of China’s electricity production per year (8,300,000 gigawatt-hours). That is, even after the “surge” battery storage is only one ten thousandth of output. To have enough for say 50% of renewable output would need an increase of 5,000 times the current capacity. There’s not enough lithium in the world for that.
