The race to grab all the UK’s lithium before it’s too late

Re:The race to grab all the UK’s lithium before it’s too late by Tade0 on Monday October 18, 2021 @09:15AM (#28905099)

My back of the napkin calculations say it's impossible.

The world produces around 25 000 TWh of electricity and 82 000 tonnes of lithium annually.

EDIT: wrongly assumed that 100% of the world's electricity is used for lithium mining. Correct version below:

For this to be true at $30/MWh one gram of lithium would need to cost ~$0.45, so a kWh of li-ion batteries would clock in at around $90 just for the lithium.

Li-ion batteries are already bought and sold for less than that.

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Re:The race to grab all the UK’s lithium before it’s too late by jfklsdfjsdf on Monday October 18, 2021 @10:04AM (#28905533)

I'd check your napkin ;)

5% of the world electricity usage divided by wholesale electricity cost, divided by world lithium production in grams ->

(5% * 2.5e+16 Wh X $30/1e+6 Wh) / 8.2e+10 g = $0.45 per gram (or 15kWh per gram of lithium)

The takeaway is that energy is currently unreasonably cheap.

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