14/10/2024
Batteries🔋 do not create electricity ⚡ but they store electricity produced elsewhere, especially through coal, uranium, natural power plants or diesel generators.
So the claim that an electric 🚗 is a zero-emission vehicle is not true at all, because the electricity produced comes from power plants and many of them burn coal or gas.
So 40% today ? some of electric cars on the road are carbon-based.
But that's not everything.
Those who are enthusiastic about electric cars and the green revolution should take a closer look at batteries, but also wind turbines and solar panels.
A typical electric car battery weighs 450 kg, about as big as a suitcase. It contains 11 kg of lithium, 27 kg of nickel, 20 kg of manganese, 14 kg of cobalt, 90 kg of copper and 180 kg of aluminum, steel and plastic. There are more than 6,000 individual lithium-ion cells inside.
To make each BEV battery, you will need to process 11,000 kg of salt for lithium, 15,000 kg of cobalt mineral, 2.270 kg of resin for nickel and 11,000 kg of copper mineral.
In total, you have to extract 225,000 kilograms of soil for one battery.
The biggest problem with solar systems is the chemicals used to convert silicate into the gravel used for the panels.
To produce sufficient clean silicon, it must be treated with chloride, sulfuric acid, fluoride, trichloroethane and acetone.
In addition, gallium, arsenide, copper-indian-galium diselenuride and cadmium telluride are necessary, which are also highly toxic.
Silicone dust is a hazard to workers and tiles cannot be recycled.
Wind turbines are not plus-ultra in terms of cost and environmental destruction.
Each windmill weighs 1,688 tons (equivalent to the weight of 23 houses) and contains 1300 tons of concrete, 295 tons of steel, 48 tons of iron, 24 tons of fiberglass and rare lands that are hard-to-get Neodymium, Praseodymium and Dyprosium.
Each of the three shovels weighs 40,000 kg and has a lifespan of 15 to 20 years, after which they must be replaced. We cannot recycle used rotor blades.
Certainly these technologies can have their place, but we need to look beyond the myth of freedom of emission. Going Green may seem like a utopian ideal, but if you look at the hidden and embedded costs in a realistic and impartial way, you’ll find that “Going Green” is doing more damage to the Earth’s environment today than it seems.
Image credit: Jeff Spring Shu
