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Lead-Carbon: A Game Changer for Alternative Energy Storage

Big news about world lithium resources today. Is TRU true?:
Outlook: Lithium Industry Will Be Pushed in to Oversupply through 2013
22 January 2009
Lithium consultants TRU Group Inc. says that its updated lithium outlook for presentation at the IM Lithium Supply & Markets Conference Santiago 2009 will conclude that the industry is not immune from the global recession and will be pushed into oversupply this year through 2013.

Global use of lithium will decline sharply by at least 6% in 2009 and demand is unlikely to bounce back any time soon as consumers put off buying laptops or cell phones containing lithium batteries.

It is likely now that some expansions and new projects will be delayed or cancelled until market conditions improve. However, new and large uses for lithium will start having a major impact on demand within the five-year horizon: Lithium use in electric vehicle batteries and lithium alloys for aircraft.

TRU forecasts that demand will be strong and sustained in these two segments over the long term 2020. The industry does need at least one of the announced pipeline production projects to come into production and also could do with another new project as the market tightens around 2015-2017.

New lithium producers still will need to be cost-competitive with existing salt lake brine based producers in South America and China. Emerging technology may make some of the undeveloped medium-sized (brine) lithium resources quite attractive. The industry through expansion and development of new resources will have no problem meeting demand, the outlook concludes.

TRU Group Inc., based in Toronto, Canada and Tucson, USA, are industrial management and engineering consultants with a strong capability in lithium project development. The firm is a world leader in resource evaluation, salar exploitation, brine and mineral lithium extraction and processing technologies—those in use, prospective, and leading edge.

TRU has evaluated and modeled most of the known existing lithium properties and advised a number of players on a wide variety of lithium resource, engineering, process, business and investment issues.

The outlook presentation will be posted on the site after the conference on 27 January 2009 at the link trugroup.com/Lithium-M...

Lithium Unicorns and Alternative Energy Storage

"I think I smell smoke." Smells like sulphur to me! You would think that if the entire automobile industry is really staking their future on lithium powered cars that somebody might think far enough ahead to kick up some dirt and look to see if there was any lithium out there. Billions are being spent around the world on metalurgy and chemistry research, patents filed and factories built, but nothing on a basic independent geological survey? A wise friend once told me to never look for conspiracies when simple stupidity would do. But this goes beyond stupidity.

How Will Temporary Decline in Oil Prices Impact Energy Sector?

John you are very popular because you read comments and write back. You provide a very healthy dialogue that expands everyone's understanding.

I think Aptera is going to prove you wrong, however, with the first successful battery powered American car. By using lighter materials, less materials, recycled materials and advanced aerodynamics, they have created a vehicle that has the power requirements of your Chinese bicyclist (their drag coefficient is less than Lance Armstrong's). They are selling the initial units at $30,000--a huge premium over economy commuter cars. But when they ramp up production, they have suggested that they could be profitable selling for around $15,000. That would be a game changer. They have also totally reinvented how a car is assembled. When the factory gets going, it will probably look like a desktop PC assembly line with plug-in components being added to a basic shell. And their three-wheel design allows them to skirt archaic govt. requirements, qualifying the vehicle as a motorcycle. It's a shame they are rolling out the first units during the worst possible scenario--a recession and low fuel prices. Any reader who hasn't been to aptera.com owes themselves a peak at the future. I know it's all pie in the sky sales brochure stuff now, but it sure looks and sounds plausible.

Energy Storage Opportunities vs. Irrational Expectations

I couldn't agree with you more. Improved lead acid batteries have made sense all along. For about six years, I invested in and followed a bulletin board company that had a lead acid battery which supposedly had double power/weight than traditional batteries stock symbol PWTC, pwtcbattery.com. About a year ago it seemingly fell off the face of the earth ... no more press, no more news. This happened just after they had supposedly started manufacturing. Does anyone know what happened to them?