Is China Planning to Restrict or Eliminate Export of 'Heavy' Rare Earth Metals? [View article]
Other popular promises include:
1. The check's in the mail, 2. I'll still respect you afterwards, and 3. I'll gadly pay you on Tuesday for a hamburger today.
I agree with you on your investment choices for the long term.
On Aug 19 04:28 PM jimp wrote:
> Lynas Corp has adamantly expressed that it has maintained multiple > contracts outside of China, presently and in the future. It also > made clear that the Chinese state owned partner of Lynas Corp, CNMC, > currently under review by the Australian govt., is solely interested > in making a profit. Not to direct rare earths direct to China.<br/> > > I would think owning Lynas Corp and Avalon Rare metals AVL would > make a great long term investment.
8 Energy Storage Stocks that Can Expect Explosive Growth [View article]
John,
Some data and thoughts:
I spoke at length to Better Place last Sunday, and they are focused only on well defined geographical areas that they can cover, on an economic and practical level, with recharging and battery swap stations, such as Copenhagen, San Francisco Bay, and Israel. I believe that the "Paris" plan is independent of Better Place even though I was told that there will be a Better Place car, designed and to be produced by Renault, with an easily accessed battery compartment introduced at the Frankfurt Auto Show next month. If you consider that Better Place was created in Israel and funded initially by a large grant from the Israeli national utility company you can see that many concepts can be accomodated in the EV world.
One of the biggest problems for recharging and swapping batteries is scale. Unless you can harmonize batteries not only by size and shape but also by electrochemistry you face the a market killing problem of the Beta/VHS type.
It seems to me that recharging stations can be versatile in their availability of sockets, plugs, and power delivery much more cheaply than battery makers and coach builders can, or will want to be, be versatile even with their geometries and sockets. I'm one of those who laughs out loud each time a movie space explorer simply plugs his "tricorder" into an alien or ancient "computer" and gets the data immediately. Imagine what battery technologies and chemistries may look like in just a generation and then try and convince yourself to raise the money to build recharging and swap stations in a standard pattern.
Vinod Khosla's Stance on the Future of Lithium-ion Batteries [View article]
It sure is fun watching you young-uns play in the sand box of technological history...Yesiree, it sure is.
Again, I worked on the molten alkali salt storage battery at Ford Scientific Laboratories some 45 years ago.
It was an excellent system, but it was impractical for cars, so the mandate from the laboratory director, Dr. Jacob Goldman, who came to Ford from Xerox (Xerox in the glory days of the development of Carlson's concept to a practical machine) was to extrapolate and see of we could devise a system operating at a lower temperature while maintaining its high storage capacity.
I see now that the end-use has changed, and the storage system may become cost efficient in this "new" use.
John, I looked at a company (in Texas) as an analyst last year that was producing lithium-ion batteries for military and civilian off-grid storage. It was working with Panasonic on supplying remote locations in Japan, and I was told that this is a very unreported market. This was not a molten salt system. I think that a lot of good may come from mass storage and diurnal smoothing storage research into lithium and its salts as an electrochemical storage base.
Do you have data on who is developing such storage electrochemistry? How is lead-acid impacted in that market by other technologies today?
Is the Chevy Volt Only a Fair Weather Car? [View article]
TinyTim
Keep in mind when you speak of a storage battery freezing solid that such a device is a mixture of manmade materials, electrodes of graphite or titanates, liquid electrolytes or semi-solid ones (electrolytes to work in the real world must have high throughput of ions, so that even so-called "polymer electrolytes" are not rigid solids where ions exchange by susbstitution but are pathways with minimal need for free liquids), and outer cases in which the battery's constituents are placed in sharply defined relationships to one another. Don't forget the parts and channels for the battery's internal temperature maintenance system. Valves for these systems can be irrepairably damaged by freezing.
When such a system as a lithium-ion or nickel metal hydride battery storage battery "freezes" mechanical motion occurs which has random elements so that upon returning to "operating" temperature the best that can be hoped for is that the structural integrity of the "system' has survived; the spatial relationships will not have.
Such a battery, once frozen, is ruined, and if it has ruptured, may inflict damge on the mechanical components of the power train. If such a battery has been used for SLI purposes then the vehicle's ICE will not be able to resume functioning even when returned to operating temperature for normal starting.
A frozen Volt battery will surely mean that the Volt has become a large wind break and certainly not a means of transportation.
At what point in the Volt battery system's discharge do you think the energy remaining above minimum capacity will be devoted to the heating/coolong system? It would be nice to know.
GM to Invest $43M in Chevy Volt Battery Plant [View article]
In the middle ages it was "How many angels can fit on the head of a pin?" The answer was infinitely many, because the wonders of God were unbounded. But now as to how many miles can be obtained from the use of gasoline as a supplementary fuel in an extended range plug-in hybrid the answer is not so clear although the answers being given trend towards infinity.
Please explain to me just how far the Volt will go if the battery charge is being "maintained" by the ICE and the movement of the car is only from the excess current (above the minimum needed to maintain the battery at its irreducible minimum state of charge) being delivered to the electric drive motor connected to the wheels??
By the way if the situation of a low battery occurs on a blstering hot or bobe-chilling cold day does not the diversion of generator power to the heating/colling system of the battery less the range?
I also want to know how fast the car will go in that situation, so that I know my margin of safety.
When I ask questions such as the above the modern scholastics of the cult of lithium accuse me of being a nonbeliever. Nonetheless I say verily that I will not ever consider buying a Chevrolet Volt, and neither should you, untill all of my questions are answered so that I may compare oranges with oranges OPERATIONALLY rather than oranges with lemons.
Vinod Khosla's Stance on the Future of Lithium-ion Batteries [View article]
Gentlemen,
You've finally arrived at a key point of understanding. It is, indeed, the internal wiring that is the issue, but it's not that of any battery chemistry it is, rather, of our own brains and endocrine systems.
John is correct: Cheap beats cool every time, because the American way is instant gratification and to do that one needs new adultolescent toys regularly even as net worth declines. The marketing of the lithium-ion battery is the same as of a music "album" or the ticket to a concert; if you don't have one, and if you don't have the prospect of having one you're (GASP) uncool.
In a world of limited resources and increasingly limited resources it is simply foolish to the point of jejeune (reasoning unleavened by experience as with a child or a new CEO) to squander resources of time and money just to be cool.
But that's what we're doing in the field of storage batteries.
Does anyone who is actually an adult believe that the next two generations of mankind will spend an ocean of treasure and tie up the intelects of thousands of the dwindling class of men and women who dedicate a quarter of their lives to learning engineering and science just to have a cool "anything."
Our civilization is evolving to where the standard of living of billions, not just of a few hundred million who live among, but are not themselves, the gifted in the sciences and engineering, or the dedicated in either, must now rise if the world is to continue at peace.
The Japanese, the Chinese, the Indians, and the Koreans see the future as one of limitations of extra-territorial ambitions as solutions to domestic problems. This means that they must grow their domestic economies rapidly to avoid the poison of envy.
We are giving them very good reasons not to envy us any more.
While they develop the underpinnings of a strong economy of manufacturing and energy we simply give them the means to grow by paying for their growth until they can utilize it internally and no longer require our money or our doestic markets.
Korea has announced that it will dedicate itself to controlling or owning 40% of its needed strategic resources by 2020. Japan has a higher goal, and China's goal is 100%. This means that sometime in the next decade free market capitalism as a driver for increased supplies of resources will cease to function in the United States.
The money we send to Japan and China for affordable (no longer "cheap") cars, clothes, and electronic toys that dissipate irreplacable resources comes back our way to buy natural resources not shares in American lithium-ion battery R&D startups masked as manufacturing ventures ready to build factories with public handouts.
China now says that it will begin to reduce its emissions of "greenhouse" gases in 2050 if its goals for domestic growth have then been met. America says it will begin to reduce its emissions of such gases now and then decide if it has any set goals for domestic growth.
If China meets her goals for domestic growth by 2050 it will mean that the US no longer has access openly to natural resources at a level necessary to sustain the 2007 standard of living.
China has already closed off the adult toy box of cheap manufacturing for foreign consumption. Now China is closing off America's access to rare earth metals, metals for solar energy conversion, and metals, such as tungsten, for specialty steels. China is doing nothing secret or underhanded; it is buying control even of what dwindling remaining production of those resources that we have but not to invest in our producers but rather to move the resources into China's domestic economy. The Japanese have now awakened to this and are adopting the Chinese strategy.
North America is still a treasure house of natural resources, but if we don't expand our production of them for our own use then we are headed for the position of a mediocre future economy.
For those of you who will live in the America of the future I am warning you that natural resources are finite as is the creation of wealth. Stop squandering both on dreams of cool positional (status) personal goods.
Is the Chevy Volt Only a Fair Weather Car? [View article]
MRTTF
Thank you for the illumination. It is sorely needed by most Volt cultists who seem to live among the mushrooms and have thinking processes fed by fertilizer to boot.
Lies, Damned Lies and MPG Claims for the Volt [View instapost]
John,
This "controversy" makes me think of the World War II American admiral who while retreating from superior Japanese forces radioed "I am retiring before the enemy with all deliberate speed." I don't think the EPA or DOT is "actively complicit" in any deception of anyone other than themselves.
I did the same calculation as you have done and came to the same conclusion.
I have a new marketing approach for GM for the Volt:
"The Chevrolet Volt, the car that makes decisons on travel distance for you. Never again worry about getting anywhere more distant than 40 miles in a reasonable amount of time. Let your car make the decison for you. Admire the scenery as you wait hours for a recharge, or, better yet, admire the neighborhood as you walk looking for a recharging capability in an area with which you are not familiar.
See America the Volt Way In your Chevrolet Walking
Is the Chevy Volt Only a Fair Weather Car? [View article]
jd-
Whenever I say that the Chevrolet Volt is basically a souped up "golf cart" I get a torrent of personal abuse from many of my fellow Detroiters whose lives were formerly intertwined with the future of General Motors.
In fact I frequently hear from my fellow "Detroiters" the same kind of irrelevant arguments as were written above by "Springbob" and "Trueblue." I suspect that they haven't read what I actually said, or if they have, simply, like Washington bureaucrats, 1.) Don't care about people outside of their own backtard, and 2.) Dont care about the future of Detroit or the OEM American automotive industry. I care about both.
Vinod Khosla's Stance on the Future of Lithium-ion Batteries [View article]
John,
Your article is a succinct masterpiece on the subject matter. I have one lengthy comment to add. You say:
"...the world must find relevant scale solutions for persistent shortages of water, food, energy and virtually every commodity you can imagine."
I think that the need for priority in the determination of the end uses for energy coupled with the growing non-industrial demand for energy puts paid to the idea of producing ever more "quantities" of rare metals from known and declining "grades" of ores, the increased production of which is hugely energy intensive.
Therefore I have come to the conclusion that the idea of producing and using huge amounts of energy simply to move individuals from where the are to where they wish to be is daily becoming less likely to continue.
Western society by limiting its production of energy to sources that are politically fashionable for the moment has doomed itself to irrelevancy in the near future as southeast Asia uses and daily increases its use of every form of energy production and energy conversion, and, in so doing, sequesters to its region the critical raw materials, coal, oil, gas, uranium, and thorium, for the production of energy.
The social philosophers who whine of a future of "haves" and "have nots" are speaking of money; they have it wrong the future is of have and have not societies based on access to energy sources.
American and western European "civilization" is hugely wasteful of energy not only in transportation. I watch in wonder as financiers, politicians, and so-called journalists urge ever increasing consumption upon us as a solution to our current economic problems without giving a thought to the energy production needed to feed the furnaces of production. These imbeciles even urge the cutback of energy production to "green" the world. Of course that world is only the energy suicidal West.
Will Japanese Industry Find Critical Earth Metal Solutions in Kazakhstan? [View article]
Actually it's like Poe's "The Purloined Letter." The solution is sitting right out in front of us, and we don't notice it. Japanese traders speaking Russian and the local Kazakh language(s) have probably been scouting the area for technology metals for years while western "businessmen" looked only at gold, copper, and more recently molybdenum.
Year ago, to expalin the reason why Japanese businesses were rapidly moving into the US market while the reverse wasn't true, the International Herald Tribune published the statistic that 75,000 Japanese businessmen spoke English while 75 American businessmen spoke Japanese. I doubt that the ratio has changed much since then.
On Aug 12 08:12 AM Davewmart wrote:
> Very interesting article. > It makes me wonder whether something has not been happening under > the radar there for some years. > Toyota are very far from being stupid, and must have realised the > importance of securing supplies of rare earths years ago. > It might also make sense for them to play it quiet, to avoid alerting > the competition. > Shades of the Great Game, in that region of the world!
The Charging Station Gods Must Be Crazy [View instapost]
John,
Great minds run on the same utility grid. I wrote also on this general theme yesterday. I blamed the politicians and the stock promoters for being self-interested and greedy, but if that isn't the case, and the politicians are wise and the stock promoters only want to redistribute their wealth to the deserving suckers then, indeed, the charging station gods are crazy.
Popular Mechanics Gets It Wrong on Buick Hybrid [View article]
It's my understanding from GM's literature that the on board ICE in a Volt is NOT intended to ever be able to give the on board battery a full recharge. To do that it would have to run when the battery is not being used. The problem then is that the Volt is not a PHEV by your definition it is a short range battery powered vehicle with on board battery preservation generating system powered by an ICE fueld by gasoline. Isn't that silly?
On Aug 09 12:34 PM Tdot wrote:
> Huge misunderstanding shown by the author. As stated by others, the > word "Hybrid" in Hybrid Electric Vehicles, for example in the acronym > "PHEV" (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle) ALWAYS implies there are > (at least) two power sources combined together, to provide locomotion > for the vehicle. In this Hybrid case, a Battery Electric Motor combines > with an Internal Combustion engine through a transmission that sends > power to the wheels. Now, there are varying degrees of proportion. > > > "Mild" hybrids use the Battery power relatively little - perhaps > just allowing the ICE to shut down briefly during coast-downs and > stops. Most of the driving power comes from the engine. "Full" hybrids > have more powerful batteries and motors, which can allow the vehicle > to also operate as an Electric Vehicle for short distances. Plug-In > or Extended Range hybrids allow the vehicle to operate more as an > Electric Vehicle for longer distances, at least until the battery > needs to be recharged by the onboard engine, or by plugging it back > in. > > A full Battery Electric Vehicle (seekingalpha.com/symbo...) > has the sort of non-hybrid powertrain that must be plugged in (eventually) > to recharge, since it has no other engine or power source to back > it up.
The Truth About Fossil Fuels and Renewable Energy (Part II) [View article]
Although I don't usually comment on individual companies I want to say that Cameco is run either by very savvy mining engineers or by bean-counters who listen to their very savvy engineers. Cameco is already half-way to a future in which it will be a diversified supplier of critical material for alternate energy. In this it is way ahead of the pack. Watch this comapny carefully.
Carlos Ghosn and the 'Leased' Battery [View article]
GARETH,
Thanks for the support. May I ask you what is the composition of the Nd-Fe-B magnet in the wind turbine? I'd like to know how much neodymium it takes to manufacture the 600 kg magnet necessary for the 1 mW production capacity, and I don't know the empirical formula for the alloy.
Is China Planning to Restrict or Eliminate Export of 'Heavy' Rare Earth Metals? [View article]
1. The check's in the mail,
2. I'll still respect you afterwards, and
3. I'll gadly pay you on Tuesday for a hamburger today.
I agree with you on your investment choices for the long term.
On Aug 19 04:28 PM jimp wrote:
> Lynas Corp has adamantly expressed that it has maintained multiple
> contracts outside of China, presently and in the future. It also
> made clear that the Chinese state owned partner of Lynas Corp, CNMC,
> currently under review by the Australian govt., is solely interested
> in making a profit. Not to direct rare earths direct to China.<br/>
>
> I would think owning Lynas Corp and Avalon Rare metals AVL would
> make a great long term investment.
8 Energy Storage Stocks that Can Expect Explosive Growth [View article]
Some data and thoughts:
I spoke at length to Better Place last Sunday, and they are focused only on well defined geographical areas that they can cover, on an economic and practical level, with recharging and battery swap stations, such as Copenhagen, San Francisco Bay, and Israel. I believe that the "Paris" plan is independent of Better Place even though I was told that there will be a Better Place car, designed and to be produced by Renault, with an easily accessed battery compartment introduced at the Frankfurt Auto Show next month. If you consider that Better Place was created in Israel and funded initially by a large grant from the Israeli national utility company you can see that many concepts can be accomodated in the EV world.
One of the biggest problems for recharging and swapping batteries is scale. Unless you can harmonize batteries not only by size and shape but also by electrochemistry you face the a market killing problem of the Beta/VHS type.
It seems to me that recharging stations can be versatile in their availability of sockets, plugs, and power delivery much more cheaply than battery makers and coach builders can, or will want to be, be versatile even with their geometries and sockets. I'm one of those who laughs out loud each time a movie space explorer simply plugs his "tricorder" into an alien or ancient "computer" and gets the data immediately. Imagine what battery technologies and chemistries may look like in just a generation and then try and convince yourself to raise the money to build recharging and swap stations in a standard pattern.
Vinod Khosla's Stance on the Future of Lithium-ion Batteries [View article]
Again, I worked on the molten alkali salt storage battery at Ford Scientific Laboratories some 45 years ago.
It was an excellent system, but it was impractical for cars, so the mandate from the laboratory director, Dr. Jacob Goldman, who came to Ford from Xerox (Xerox in the glory days of the development of Carlson's concept to a practical machine) was to extrapolate and see of we could devise a system operating at a lower temperature while maintaining its high storage capacity.
I see now that the end-use has changed, and the storage system may become cost efficient in this "new" use.
John, I looked at a company (in Texas) as an analyst last year that was producing lithium-ion batteries for military and civilian off-grid storage. It was working with Panasonic on supplying remote locations in Japan, and I was told that this is a very unreported market. This was not a molten salt system. I think that a lot of good may come from mass storage and diurnal smoothing storage research into lithium and its salts as an electrochemical storage base.
Do you have data on who is developing such storage electrochemistry? How is lead-acid impacted in that market by other technologies today?
Jack
Is the Chevy Volt Only a Fair Weather Car? [View article]
Keep in mind when you speak of a storage battery freezing solid that such a device is a mixture of manmade materials, electrodes of graphite or titanates, liquid electrolytes or semi-solid ones (electrolytes to work in the real world must have high throughput of ions, so that even so-called "polymer electrolytes" are not rigid solids where ions exchange by susbstitution but are pathways with minimal need for free liquids), and outer cases in which the battery's constituents are placed in sharply defined relationships to one another. Don't forget the parts and channels for the battery's internal temperature maintenance system. Valves for these systems can be irrepairably damaged by freezing.
When such a system as a lithium-ion or nickel metal hydride battery storage battery "freezes" mechanical motion occurs which has random elements so that upon returning to "operating" temperature the best that can be hoped for is that the structural integrity of the "system' has survived; the spatial relationships will not have.
Such a battery, once frozen, is ruined, and if it has ruptured, may inflict damge on the mechanical components of the power train. If such a battery has been used for SLI purposes then the vehicle's ICE will not be able to resume functioning even when returned to operating temperature for normal starting.
A frozen Volt battery will surely mean that the Volt has become a large wind break and certainly not a means of transportation.
At what point in the Volt battery system's discharge do you think the energy remaining above minimum capacity will be devoted to the heating/coolong system? It would be nice to know.
GM to Invest $43M in Chevy Volt Battery Plant [View article]
Please explain to me just how far the Volt will go if the battery charge is being "maintained" by the ICE and the movement of the car is only from the excess current (above the minimum needed to maintain the battery at its irreducible minimum state of charge) being delivered to the electric drive motor connected to the wheels??
By the way if the situation of a low battery occurs on a blstering hot or bobe-chilling cold day does not the diversion of generator power to the heating/colling system of the battery less the range?
I also want to know how fast the car will go in that situation, so that I know my margin of safety.
When I ask questions such as the above the modern scholastics of the cult of lithium accuse me of being a nonbeliever. Nonetheless I say verily that I will not ever consider buying a Chevrolet Volt, and neither should you, untill all of my questions are answered so that I may compare oranges with oranges OPERATIONALLY rather than oranges with lemons.
Vinod Khosla's Stance on the Future of Lithium-ion Batteries [View article]
You've finally arrived at a key point of understanding. It is, indeed, the internal wiring that is the issue, but it's not that of any battery chemistry it is, rather, of our own brains and endocrine systems.
John is correct: Cheap beats cool every time, because the American way is instant gratification and to do that one needs new adultolescent toys regularly even as net worth declines. The marketing of the lithium-ion battery is the same as of a music "album" or the ticket to a concert; if you don't have one, and if you don't have the prospect of having one you're (GASP) uncool.
In a world of limited resources and increasingly limited resources it is simply foolish to the point of jejeune (reasoning unleavened by experience as with a child or a new CEO) to squander resources of time and money just to be cool.
But that's what we're doing in the field of storage batteries.
Does anyone who is actually an adult believe that the next two generations of mankind will spend an ocean of treasure and tie up the intelects of thousands of the dwindling class of men and women who dedicate a quarter of their lives to learning engineering and science just to have a cool "anything."
Our civilization is evolving to where the standard of living of billions, not just of a few hundred million who live among, but are not themselves, the gifted in the sciences and engineering, or the dedicated in either, must now rise if the world is to continue at peace.
The Japanese, the Chinese, the Indians, and the Koreans see the future as one of limitations of extra-territorial ambitions as solutions to domestic problems. This means that they must grow their domestic economies rapidly to avoid the poison of envy.
We are giving them very good reasons not to envy us any more.
While they develop the underpinnings of a strong economy of manufacturing and energy we simply give them the means to grow by paying for their growth until they can utilize it internally and no longer require our money or our doestic markets.
Korea has announced that it will dedicate itself to controlling or owning 40% of its needed strategic resources by 2020. Japan has a higher goal, and China's goal is 100%. This means that sometime in the next decade free market capitalism as a driver for increased supplies of resources will cease to function in the United States.
The money we send to Japan and China for affordable (no longer "cheap") cars, clothes, and electronic toys that dissipate irreplacable resources comes back our way to buy natural resources not shares in American lithium-ion battery R&D startups masked as manufacturing ventures ready to build factories with public handouts.
China now says that it will begin to reduce its emissions of "greenhouse" gases in 2050 if its goals for domestic growth have then been met. America says it will begin to reduce its emissions of such gases now and then decide if it has any set goals for domestic growth.
If China meets her goals for domestic growth by 2050 it will mean that the US no longer has access openly to natural resources at a level necessary to sustain the 2007 standard of living.
China has already closed off the adult toy box of cheap manufacturing for foreign consumption. Now China is closing off America's access to rare earth metals, metals for solar energy conversion, and metals, such as tungsten, for specialty steels. China is doing nothing secret or underhanded; it is buying control even of what dwindling remaining production of those resources that we have but not to invest in our producers but rather to move the resources into China's domestic economy. The Japanese have now awakened to this and are adopting the Chinese strategy.
North America is still a treasure house of natural resources, but if we don't expand our production of them for our own use then we are headed for the position of a mediocre future economy.
For those of you who will live in the America of the future I am warning you that natural resources are finite as is the creation of wealth. Stop squandering both on dreams of cool positional (status) personal goods.
Is the Chevy Volt Only a Fair Weather Car? [View article]
Thank you for the illumination. It is sorely needed by most Volt cultists who seem to live among the mushrooms and have thinking processes fed by fertilizer to boot.
Jack Lifton
Lies, Damned Lies and MPG Claims for the Volt [View instapost]
This "controversy" makes me think of the World War II American admiral who while retreating from superior Japanese forces radioed "I am retiring before the enemy with all deliberate speed." I don't think the EPA or DOT is "actively complicit" in any deception of anyone other than themselves.
I did the same calculation as you have done and came to the same conclusion.
I have a new marketing approach for GM for the Volt:
"The Chevrolet Volt, the car that makes decisons on travel distance for you. Never again worry about getting anywhere more distant than 40 miles in a reasonable amount of time. Let your car make the decison for you. Admire the scenery as you wait hours for a recharge, or, better yet, admire the neighborhood as you walk looking for a recharging capability in an area with which you are not familiar.
See America the Volt Way
In your Chevrolet
Walking
Is the Chevy Volt Only a Fair Weather Car? [View article]
Whenever I say that the Chevrolet Volt is basically a souped up "golf cart" I get a torrent of personal abuse from many of my fellow Detroiters whose lives were formerly intertwined with the future of General Motors.
In fact I frequently hear from my fellow "Detroiters" the same kind of irrelevant arguments as were written above by "Springbob" and "Trueblue." I suspect that they haven't read what I actually said, or if they have, simply, like Washington bureaucrats, 1.) Don't care about people outside of their own backtard, and 2.) Dont care about the future of Detroit or the OEM American automotive industry. I care about both.
Vinod Khosla's Stance on the Future of Lithium-ion Batteries [View article]
Your article is a succinct masterpiece on the subject matter. I have one lengthy comment to add. You say:
"...the world must find relevant scale solutions for persistent shortages of water, food, energy and virtually every commodity you can imagine."
I think that the need for priority in the determination of the end uses for energy coupled with the growing non-industrial demand for energy puts paid to the idea of producing ever more "quantities" of rare metals from known and declining "grades" of ores, the increased production of which is hugely energy intensive.
Therefore I have come to the conclusion that the idea of producing and using huge amounts of energy simply to move individuals from where the are to where they wish to be is daily becoming less likely to continue.
Western society by limiting its production of energy to sources that are politically fashionable for the moment has doomed itself to irrelevancy in the near future as southeast Asia uses and daily increases its use of every form of energy production and energy conversion, and, in so doing, sequesters to its region the critical raw materials, coal, oil, gas, uranium, and thorium, for the production of energy.
The social philosophers who whine of a future of "haves" and "have nots" are speaking of money; they have it wrong the future is of have and have not societies based on access to energy sources.
American and western European "civilization" is hugely wasteful of energy not only in transportation. I watch in wonder as financiers, politicians, and so-called journalists urge ever increasing consumption upon us as a solution to our current economic problems without giving a thought to the energy production needed to feed the furnaces of production. These imbeciles even urge the cutback of energy production to "green" the world. Of course that world is only the energy suicidal West.
Will Japanese Industry Find Critical Earth Metal Solutions in Kazakhstan? [View article]
Year ago, to expalin the reason why Japanese businesses were rapidly moving into the US market while the reverse wasn't true, the International Herald Tribune published the statistic that 75,000 Japanese businessmen spoke English while 75 American businessmen spoke Japanese. I doubt that the ratio has changed much since then.
On Aug 12 08:12 AM Davewmart wrote:
> Very interesting article.
> It makes me wonder whether something has not been happening under
> the radar there for some years.
> Toyota are very far from being stupid, and must have realised the
> importance of securing supplies of rare earths years ago.
> It might also make sense for them to play it quiet, to avoid alerting
> the competition.
> Shades of the Great Game, in that region of the world!
The Charging Station Gods Must Be Crazy [View instapost]
Great minds run on the same utility grid. I wrote also on this general theme yesterday. I blamed the politicians and the stock promoters for being self-interested and greedy, but if that isn't the case, and the politicians are wise and the stock promoters only want to redistribute their wealth to the deserving suckers then, indeed, the charging station gods are crazy.
Popular Mechanics Gets It Wrong on Buick Hybrid [View article]
On Aug 09 12:34 PM Tdot wrote:
> Huge misunderstanding shown by the author. As stated by others, the
> word "Hybrid" in Hybrid Electric Vehicles, for example in the acronym
> "PHEV" (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle) ALWAYS implies there are
> (at least) two power sources combined together, to provide locomotion
> for the vehicle. In this Hybrid case, a Battery Electric Motor combines
> with an Internal Combustion engine through a transmission that sends
> power to the wheels. Now, there are varying degrees of proportion.
>
>
> "Mild" hybrids use the Battery power relatively little - perhaps
> just allowing the ICE to shut down briefly during coast-downs and
> stops. Most of the driving power comes from the engine. "Full" hybrids
> have more powerful batteries and motors, which can allow the vehicle
> to also operate as an Electric Vehicle for short distances. Plug-In
> or Extended Range hybrids allow the vehicle to operate more as an
> Electric Vehicle for longer distances, at least until the battery
> needs to be recharged by the onboard engine, or by plugging it back
> in.
>
> A full Battery Electric Vehicle (seekingalpha.com/symbo...)
> has the sort of non-hybrid powertrain that must be plugged in (eventually)
> to recharge, since it has no other engine or power source to back
> it up.
The Truth About Fossil Fuels and Renewable Energy (Part II) [View article]
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Thanks for the support. May I ask you what is the composition of the Nd-Fe-B magnet in the wind turbine? I'd like to know how much neodymium it takes to manufacture the 600 kg magnet necessary for the 1 mW production capacity, and I don't know the empirical formula for the alloy.
Jack