"We don't mine batteries from the ground"

Er...

Maybe rephrase your question to be clearer, but I'm assuming you mean mining the chemical components of batteries. Not what I was referring to.

I'm talking about the fundamental difference between a battery of any variety (chemical, flywheel, etc.) and petrochemical energy sources.

The article compares energy density of gasoline and other energy sources with "electric". It's a poor comparison. These are different categories. One is an energy source which is also a storage medium (single use), the other is a pure storage medium.

Actually, lithium is a very depletable resource just like oil and coal are. Not in the sense that we use it up for energy, but in the sense that if you want to run all cars on lithium batteries there simply isn't enough easily mine-able lithium in the world. In this sense it is valid to say that we mine batteries. The same story goes for most solar panels.

Comparing the energy density of gasoline with the energy density of a charged battery is obviously also valid.

We don't mine lithium or nickel for its intrinsic energy.

> Evidently the free market is awesome except when it results in cheap products that threaten an established industry.

China actively and heavily subsidizes its solar industry. That is hardly the result of a free market.

I agree and instead of tariffs I'd rather see the US put some money behind domestic solar. I don't want subsidized goods to kill the domestic mfgrs, but I'd love to see us combine our technical innovations in solar with a full court press to get the industry off the ground.

I'd say the same for modern nuclear.