The battle cry of energy transition advocates is “Electrify everything.” Meaning: Let’s power cars, heating systems, industrial plants, and every other type of machine with electricity rather than fossil fuels. To do that, we need copper—and lots of it. Second to silver, a rarer and far more expensive metal, copper is the best natural electrical conductor on Earth. We need it for solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicles. (A typical EVcontains as much as 175 pounds of copper.) We need it for the giant batteries that will provide power when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. We need it to massively expand and upgrade the countless miles of power cables that undergird the energy grid in practically every country. In the United States, the capacity of the electric grid will have to grow as much as threefold to meet the expected demand.
So exactly how much copper will be needed:
A recent report from S&P Global predicts that the amount of copper we’ll need over the next 25 years will add up to more than the human race has consumed in its entire history. “The world has never produced anywhere close to this much copper in such a short time frame,” the report notes.
So this is a good test for environmental organisations. Do they oppose copper mining in NZ?
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.
5 comments:
The smart money and mining companies worked this out years ago. Going green is great for their business, just look at the share price of Rio Tinto.
The environmental damage caused by extraction of all the minerals required for green energy will be far more than CO2.
How’s that good for the planet?
Again the mainstream media never say anything about the massive environmental damage done by mining any of the minerals required for their EV cars, solar arrays, or transmission lines.
Its a far greater disaster than the so called climate "disaster" will ever be : and its not reversible, unlike climate effects.
Take a look at the water table downstream issues from any copper mine - the southern USA ones are the biggest and worst.
Sourcing sufficient copper for the 'EV revolution' isn't the only challenge; the rare earth minerals required as well are called that for a reason. As usual, the whole trend is something dreamed up by wealthy nations, the poor ones supplying the raw materials and the labour largely gain no benefit at all.
So, does the "green" as used in "greenies" etc actually refer to the oxidization of copper, not the leaves of trees, the grasses etc?
"So exactly how much copper will be needed?" & "the amount of copper we’ll need over the next 25 years will add up to more than the human race has consumed in its entire history".
Oh joy! Please save us from these environmental experts ... Now let's see, according to Assoc Prof Simon Michaux - The quantity of metals required to manufacture just one generation of renewable technology to replace fossil fuels, is much larger than first thought. Current mining production of these metals is not even close to meeting demand. Current reported mineral reserves are also not enough in size. Most concerning is copper as one of the flagged shortfalls. Exploration for more at required volumes will be difficult and that is an understatement. Pop this into a search engine: "quantity of metals required to manufacture just one generation" for detail.
Another point lost on our Green Goblins is the amount of fossil fuel (raw energy) needed to mine the stuff. We cannot scrabble it out of the ground with our bare hands in any significant quantity and hey, what would be the EROEI on that if we could?
So, that fossil fuel will be needed in large quantities and it simply will not be there for that much longer given one of the latest updates regarding the 1970's book Limits to Growth (search on jiec.13442 and the paper will pop up). Figure 3 in that update shows the latest recalibration against the original Business as Usual (BAU) World 3 modelling. Reality has been pretty much following the BAU modelling. There are many who decry the Peak Oil aspects but the truth is likely more that the can was just kicked a bit down the road by fracking, etc.
This mainstay of wokedom (Climate Crisis) and a focus on EVs, renewables, etc. is diverting resources and attention from what many of us boomers have long thought was the real threat. Too many people bumping up against a limited store of resources in a finite space (our Planet). Hmm, I wonder if Mātauranga Māori nonscience can fix that conundrum?
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