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Re:Lithium discovery in US volcano could be biggest deposit ... by Gibbon1 on Sunday September 10, 2023 @05:52AM (#37454368)
Not Aluminum. However iron can be reduced in a low temperature aqueous cell. I can't think of why that couldn't be done intermittently. Takes about 3-4kwh per kg of iron produced. That probably works out to $150-250/ton.

You can also run electric furnaces intermittently because they are inherently a batch process.

Re:Lithium discovery in US volcano could be biggest deposit ... by pfdietz on Sunday September 10, 2023 @08:20AM (#37455162)
You can also make iron by direct reduction with hydrogen. IIUC, this is actually more energy efficient (with green hydrogen) than direct electrolytic reduction. And electrolysers for hydrogen are getting cheap enough that running them intermittently will make sense.