Quote:
Originally Posted by oil pan 4
They would use lead acid because there is simply not enough lithium to make batteries to do all this. Sure tesla can build a few demo models. But scale it up to global size and build all the electric cars using lithium batteries. I don't think so.
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Lithium is extremely common. It's the third element in the periodic table. The supply chain has to grow and mature, but
it's not scarce.
Quote:
Originally Posted by oil pan 4
At least the lead acid batteries get recycled. The lithium batteries are chucked into a land fill when they're no good.
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This is also false. Lithium-ion batteries, when depleted beyond their useful capacity, have significant economic value. This 7-year old
article details some of the progress that was made at the time. Tesla has since announced a closed-loop battery recycling program that will recover all of the lithium from recycled batteries, along with much of the other valuable metals. I believe the last number achieved was 80%. This also takes pressure off of your first concern, above.
Quote:
Originally Posted by oil pan 4
That's why I find the cute little solar roof top charing station a joke. They are not showing the sub substation supplying power the inverters, they are not showing the inverter control room with hvac sitting on top or next to it.
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Here, we can agree to some extent. The solar canopy (Tesla has a few of them here in California) adds really nice shade when you're charging. Other than that, it's of marginal benefit aside from optics. It's not sizable enough to make much of a dent. Of course, they've got grid-tied inverters that are not in an HVAC control room. They're externally mounted next to the stacked chargers.