Besides lithium and cobalt for the batteries driving electric vehicles, another valuable material is needed to make all the cars that need to hit the roads in order to fulfill the Biden administration’s lofty EV transition goals.
However, a newly published study by Cornell and University of Michigan professors suggest that there might not be enough to go around.
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An employee produces copper wires at Nanjing Gree Electric Enterprise Co., Ltd. on Jan. 18, 2021 in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province of China.
As per a new study titled “Copper mining and vehicle electrification” by Cornell professor Lawrence M. Cathles and University of Michigan Earth & Environmental Sciences professor Adam Simon, copper cannot be mined quickly enough to make the wires and other components needed to fulfill the current goals toward renewable energy.
In a statement, Simon argues that much more copper is going to be needed for all the wiring that goes into the newfangled electric cars that are at the center of the environmental policy, as well as the new wires that will deliver the electricity from the grid to juice them up.
“A normal Honda Accord needs about 40 pounds of copper. The same battery electric Honda Accord needs almost 200 pounds of copper. Onshore wind turbines require about 10 tons of copper, and in offshore wind turbines, that amount can more than double,” said Simon. “[…] the amount of copper needed is essentially impossible for mining companies to produce.”
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In the study, the UMich professor and the Cathles look back at over 120 years of global data from copper mining companies and calculated the needs of American electric infrastructure, as well as the new EVs that would be hitting the road. In their findings, they found that the demand that renewable energy demands outpaces what copper mines can currently produce.
According to Simon, much of the problem lies in the bureaucracy that takes place in between when a new copper mineral deposit is discovered and a permit to mine and extract copper is actually issued; which can take a whopping 20 years — enough time for electric vehicle technology to evolve, or worse: disappear.
Their study finds that in order to meet the needs of EV adoption on a global scale, up to six new copper mines need to be operational over the next few decades, with up to 40% of their output reserved for just EV-related materials. As per Simon and Cathles’ data, the world’s copper mines will need to produce 115% more copper than has been mined in all of human history up until 2018 in order to meet demand.
As a fan and an adopter of renewable energy and EVs, Simon is disappointed by this realization.
“I’ve got solar panels, batteries and an electric vehicle,” Simon said. “I’m fully on board with the energy transition. However, it needs to be done in a way that’s achievable.”
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His suggestion falls in like with automakers like Volkswagen, Honda and even Lamborghini and Mercedes-Benz — whom are focused on producing gas-hybrid vehicles while in the midst of an EV sales downturn.
Professor Simon hopes that those in power will see the dilemma that he feels is overlooked.
“We are hoping the study gets picked up by policymakers who should consider copper as the limiting factor for the energy transition, and to think about how copper is allocated,” Simon said.
“We know, for example, that a Toyota Prius actually has a slightly better impact on climate than a Tesla. Instead of producing 20 million electric vehicles in the United States and globally, 100 million battery electric vehicles each year, would it be more feasible to focus on building 20 million hybrid vehicles?”
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