How Much Energy Will the World Need?
As we close in on the first quarter of the twenty-first century though, recent developments like the Ukrainian War, the Green Movement and numerous other factors have caused many to ponder about where our energy comes from and what will be needed to power our world over the next forty to fifty years.
Transportation
Everything we rely on for day to day life arrives to us via global transportation. 97% of all global transportation worldwide uses petroleum based fuel. Not batteries and electricity, although EV is slowly infiltrating global transport. But it may never even reach critical mass.
The Renewable Energy Era
As the world pivots from non-renewable to renewable energy sources, some cold hard facts come to light. Photovoltaic solar panels require silicon, aluminum, cadmium telluride, copper, indium gallium diselendide, perskovite as well as a host of other minerals and metals. Lithium Ion batteries require lithium cobalt oxide, graphite, manganese oxide, iron phosphate as well as lots of petroleum-based plastics for housings, separators, cable tubing for wiring.
Because solar panels have quite low energy output yields per square foot, tens or hundreds millions of panels will have to be produced as well as millions of lithium Ion batteries. This means that we are going to have to increase mining by many fold just to keep up with present demand for the rare earth minerals and metals needed to construct all of these solar panels and batteries.
Powering The EV Movement
We all have seen the relatively recent movement to replace ICE cars with EV cars. In order to achieve the goals being set to increase the number of EVs on the roads, tens of millions of
lithium ion batteries will be needed in order to power all of these cars. This push transitioning to EVs is being spearheaded by Green-leaning politicians. Ironically these same leaders are refusing to allow the construction of new mines that are needed to keep up with the increased demand for the minerals and metals needed to construct the lithium ion batteries that power the cars. And this isn't happening in just the United States, but worldwide in most of the countries where these minerals and metals are in abundance.
This video by Mark Mills, Senior Fellow of the Manhattan Institute, breaks down all of this information in a very concise and informative way.
What About Future Energy Needs?
The solution to meet these energy needs must be multifaceted with a transition from non-renewable to renewable energy. It makes sense to not only invest in solar, wind and battery , but to also ensure that petroleum based fuel combustion becomes cleaner and more efficient to make the growing popularity of renewable energy completely realistic and economically viable into the future.
