> Sodium ion batteries

That’s prospective technology developed literally in order to overcome the limitation that is lithium availability… The battery you are talking about in China is both the first and very small capacity related to the grid.

I’m sorry but I think you clearly have an axe to grind and are not engaging with me with full intellectual honesty here.

I’ve provided facts. If you are unhappy with those facts, that is a choice, but the facts are still facts. Lithium is also abundant; I mentioned sodium because it is even more abundant and the evidence shows China’s pilot with the technology to be successful, but using lithium for utility scale storage is also feasible based on reserves available [1] and cost [2] if sodium ion utility scale storage is unable to scale, for whatever reason. Neither chemistry requires rare earths.

[1] https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/lithium-electric-v...

[2] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-07-09/china-... | https://archive.today/DklaA

Additional citation:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41292113 ("HN: North Carolina is getting a $1.4B sodium-ion battery gigafactory")

https://electrek.co/2024/08/16/north-carolina-sodium-ion-bat... ("electrek: North Carolina is getting a $1.4B sodium-ion battery gigafactory")