[RedDevil]

Originally Posted by sendler

Mining anything like Lithium from sea water will have such a high negative ER/EI so as to be completely the realm of SciFi dreams. Even if we had the raw materials, have you considered the scale of 130 TWh of batteries? Just to store 16 hours of half of the energy we are now using. Please wake up people.

130 TWh. That is just under 0.1% of the yearly global energy use (all types, not just electricity).
That is quite some backup for your grid...

Even so, lithium is light as the 3rd element of the periodic table.
It takes just 0.1 kg of lithium to build 1 kWh of battery power.
13 million ton to build 130 TWh.
That's still way less than the brine reserves in South America alone.
So we could just build that storage capacity.
Or 2 billion Teslas.

Mind you - I don't advocate 100% renewable, definitely not short time. You can't climb a mountain in one giant leap.
I advocate moving toward it. Every step helps. We may or may not reach the top, but hopefully we get to where the air is fresh.

I read about seawater extraction... and not in a sci-fi magazine:

Originally Posted by that lithium link

A compact EV battery (Nissan Leaf) uses about 4kg (9 lb) of lithium ...
About 70 percent of the world’s lithium comes from brine (salt lakes); the remainder is derived from hard rock. Research institutions are developing technology to draw lithium from seawater.
Most of the known lithium supply is in Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, Australia and China. The quality is acceptable and reports reveal that Brazil has lithium mineral reserves that are not only of higher quality but also have lower extraction costs.

The supply is ample and concerns of global shortages are speculative. To attain one ton of lithium, Latin America uses 750 tons of brine, the base material for lithium, and adds 24 months of preparation.

Lithium is commonly sourced from brine, a water and energy intensive process. According to www.foeeurope.org, 0.05-1 mg of lithium requires 1 liter of brine/mineral water. Areas rich in lithium are often arid, increasing the cost of mining. Dry and salty conditions can also take a toll on human health. Seawater extraction is a more expensive way to mine lithium.