Sunday 12 February 2023

The energy transition: inescapable mineral realities

Click above for the video
(Below the fold I’ve put the charts from the above presentation)
Another presentation by Mark Mills along similar lines

Shorter Mark Mills: the transition to renewables “distils to demand for minerals”. We don’t have the minerals enough for the transition to RE and batteries. 

Minerals needed for doubling world renewables energy (RE) from 3% to 6% of world energy (let alone “transition” to 100%) are either not available, or only available in countries high on the corruption index, AND majority of processing is done in China (➤geopolitical risk). 

Mining projects for RE-needed minerals, average 16 years from exploration to extraction.  (i.e. longer than nuclear power projects implementation).

These are realities that need to be faced. They are real, and they are serious.

Olivia Lazard on the same minerals challenges, at her July 2022 TED talk. Again: China. Which has been very forward thinking, now controls most of global RE-minerals processing. Something it made no secret of planning, by the way.

Minerals: “The human cost of cobalt

ADDED: graphs from the Mark Mills presentation below the fold: