Agree that recycling is probably going to be important (as it is already with other metals).
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/business/batteries/c...
I can't help but wonder if we still have a ways to go. Or is this anti-renewable propaganda?
I note the actual headline has an iPhone icon and the text "This is where mobile technology begins".
A similar common bait-and-switch is to talk about how EVs are bad if you generate your electricity from coal. The mental gymnastics necessary to take that data and decide "Maybe we shouldn't use EVs" rather than "Maybe we shouldn't use coal" is a wonder to behold.
So, as long as you're saying, let's do the cleanest of all the options, that's cool. Because the cleanest answer is solar, wind, EVs and storage (including lithium ion) amongst other techs and any honest approach to doing the most efficient, least destructive thing is only going to help speed them on their way.
If you're bringing it up for the same reason people bring up birds being killed by wind power, or coal powered EVs generating pollution, or how global warming isn't even a real thing etc. then yeah, it's fairly well-funded propaganda you're spreading around.
Rare-earth elements are not rare.
"Despite their name, rare-earth elements are – with the exception of the radioactive promethium – relatively plentiful in Earth's crust, with cerium being the 25th most abundant element at 68 parts per million, or as abundant as copper."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare-earth_element
And, further, many batteries and renewable power sources don't even use any Rare-earths.
As to your question, there's lots going on in storage, it wouldn't suprise me if 1/5th of the stories on a renewable tech blog were about progress and breakthroughts in various types of storage.