"Going Green" may sound like the Utopian ideal
But,
When you look at the hidden and embedded costs realistically with an open mind, you can see that Going Green is more destructive to the Earth's environment than meets the eye, particularly when you consider the environmentally destructive production costs.
Batteries, they do not make electricity – they store electricity produced elsewhere, primarily by coal, uranium, natural gas-powered plants, or diesel-fuelled generators. So, to say an EV is a zero-emission vehicle is not at all valid.
Also, since 40% of the electricity generated in the U.S. is from coal-fired plants, it follows that forty percent of the EVs on the road are coal-powered, do you agree.
Einstein's formula, E=MC2, tells us it takes the same amount of energy to move a -1000 kg gasoline-driven automobile a Km, as it does an electric one. The only question again is what produces the power?
To reiterate, it does not come from the battery; the battery is only the storage device, like a gas tank in a car.
There are two orders of batteries, rechargeable, and single use. The most common single-use batteries are A, AA, AAA, C, D. 9V, and lantern types. Those dry-cell species use zinc, manganese, lithium, silver oxide, or zinc and carbon to store electricity chemically. Please note they all contain toxic, heavy metals.
Rechargeable batteries only differ in their internal materials, usually lithium-ion, nickel-metal oxide, and nickel-cadmium. The United States uses three billion of these two battery types a year, and most are not recycled; they end up in landfills. California is the only state which requires all batteries be recycled. If you throw your small, used batteries in the trash, here is what happens to them.
All batteries are self-discharging. That means even when not in use, they leak tiny amounts of energy. You have likely ruined a flashlight or two from an old, ruptured battery. When a battery runs down and can no longer power a toy or light, you think of it as dead; well, it is not. It continues to leak small amounts of electricity. As the chemicals inside it runs out, pressure builds inside the battery's metal casing, and eventually, it cracks. The metals left inside then ooze out. The ooze in your ruined flashlight is toxic, and so is the ooze that will inevitably leak from every battery in a landfill. All batteries eventually rupture; it just takes rechargeable batteries longer to end up in the landfill.
In addition to dry cell batteries, there are also wet cell ones used in automobiles, boats, and motorcycles. The good thing about those is, ninety percent of them are recycled, but eventually they also expire their usefulness, again an issue how/when they are disposed .
But that is not half of it. For those of you excited about electric cars and a green revolution, I want you to take a closer look at batteries , windmills and solar panels. These three technologies share what is called environmentally destructive production costs.
A typical EV battery weighs 450 kg, containing significant quantities of, lithium, nickel, manganese, cobalt, copper, and aluminum, of course steel and plastic. Inside are over 6,000 individual lithium-ion cells.
It should concern all of us, that all those toxic components come from mining. Most electric vehicle batteries are lithium based and rely on a mix of cobalt, manganese, nickel, and graphite and other primary components. For instance, to manufacture each EV auto battery, you must process 11,400kg of brine for the lithium, 13620kg of ore for the cobalt, 2270kg of ore for the nickel, and 5,000kg of ore for copper. All told, you dig up 227 Tonnes of the earth's crust for just - one - battery.
Seventy percent of the world's cobalt, a significant part of a battery, comes from the Congo. (100,000 Tonnes), followed by Russia, Their mines have no pollution controls, and they employ children who die from handling this toxic material. Should we factor in these diseased kids as part of the cost of driving an electric car, interesting to note the manufacturers are only giving 5-8 year warranties for the batteries , then what happens to them…
California is building the largest battery in the world near San Francisco, and they intend to power it from solar panels and windmills. They claim this is the ultimate in being 'green,' but is it.
Could this construction project create an environmental problem.
The main problem with solar arrays is the chemicals needed to process silicate into the silicon used in the panels. The primary components of a solar panel are it’s solar cells. P-type or n-type solar cells are a mix of crystalline silicon and either gallium or boron to create silicon ingot. When phosphorus is added to the mix, the cells are able to conduct electricity. It is worth noting, after an expected 25 year life the panels cannot be recycled.
Windturbines are the ultimate in embedded costs and environmental destruction. For an average turbine size creating 2.55 MV of energy, which only operates at 20-30% Efficiency. These turbines contains concrete, steel, fiberglass, and the hard to extract rare earth minerals. The blades will normally last 15 to 20 years, at which time it must be replaced. We cannot recycle used blades.
There is a place for these technologies, but we must look beyond the current Hysteria and await new technology that is currently being developed.
References: Centre Sustainable Systems, University of Michigan.
Wind energy.org.nz,
Energysage.com,
Genless.govt.nz
otago.ac.nz/centre-sustainability,
ucsusa.org/resources/ev-batteries
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