Michaux takes a long time to get to the point, even at double speed. None of what I have heard in the first 20 minutes is new to anyone who followed the Peak Oil debate back in the 2005-2009 period. His estimate of required battery capacity for short-distance and light vehicles, around 62 TWh, matches a quick back-of-the envelope calculation, so that's good.
The description for the video is unpromising, blurring the distinction between reserves (known, characterized, owned) and resources (varying degrees of knowness, characterization, unowned), and implying we face a binary situation: plenty of resources, and then nothing. The world is not like that.
There is always a spectrum of possibilities. We have an extremely abundant adequate substitute for copper for electrical uses: aluminum. The bulk of electrical distribution systems is steel-cored aluminum wire.
Is copper better? Yes. Is it so much better than aluminum that the latter is unusable? No.
Aluminum's lower electrical and thermal conductivities will require design changes (higher voltage, lower current), and overall efficiency won't be as good as with copper. Very sad. But aluminum is still perfectly usable for EV motors.
And there are ways to eke out the copper we have, such as copper-clad aluminum wire (CCAW), which is already extensively used in loudspeakers. Some high currents flow in subwoofer voice coils.
As for poor people being left behind, resource prices are not the cause. Very few mineral resources are used in providing education and healthcare, and none at all in depressing wages or preventing houses from being built.
(And the high-priced vehicles being sold now pay for the R&D to improve the new technologies. The first portable computers and cell phones were ridiculously expensive toys for the rich, as well.)
>(And the high-priced vehicles being sold now pay for the R&D to improve the new technologies. The first portable computers and cell phones were ridiculously expensive toys for the rich, as well.)
Tesla is nearly 20 years old. This industry is no longer new. We’re deep into the EV movement and prices are actually going up year over year.
Just exactly how many more years do you think is needed before these vehicles begin to even approach mass affordability? We’re moving the goalposts on the $35k sweet spot and we still can’t get anywhere near it even with a massive tax credit.
Maybe by the time California has banned all combustion engines people will have just stopped driving because they can no longer afford to buy a vehicle to drive.
What makes you say that prices are going up? The MSRP on a base model 2023 Chevy Bolt with 259 miles of range is 25k without any rebates or tax incentives.
Any time a resources-based discussion related to motor vehicles comes up, I point out that the total iron ore that goes into a modern vehicle costs something like $400, plus minus a few hundred dollars depending on the typical factors.
Find me a car where, say, doubling the cost of that iron would materially impact the affordability of the final vehicle.
You won't be able to, because the price of all modern vehicles is dominated by other factors: design, certification, manufacture, shipping, taxes, etc...
Even batteries. Elon Musk pointed out that it's the lack of cell manufacturing capacity that's holding things up.
Even if all of the input materials for a Tesla was suddenly free, its cost wouldn't decrease significantly.
Big problem with aluminum is that it has less conductivity and thus is generating more heat in same diameter. However heat and air will cause aluminum cable to oxidize and as a result it will get
1) brittle to point of falling apart.
2) increases it's resistance through oxidation, which will increase heat
This is a big problem in Eastern Europe where communist were building concrete apartment towers wired with aluminum wires, it used to be major reason for fires before those towers were reconstructed and aluminum replaced by copper. Today it is forbidden to use aluminum wires in apartments and houses.
Aluminum is more-less unusable in installations where you can't shield it from air and where aluminum will heat up.
You can compensate for conductivity with larger diameters (modulo the skin effect, but there are options there too). At that point wires don't heat up so much and thus don't oxidize.
Ah! "Aluminum wire is unsuitable for use in enclosed, thermally unmanaged situations where it might have to carry sustained currents above specification. Especially where later addition of building insulation, long after wiring certification, might worsen heat removal."
Yes, true. Copper is better there. But it's irrelevant to wind turbines, EVs, BESSs, and power transmission.
Aluminum wiring is still useless, because slightest defect will cause it to oxide and fall apart, especially when you have smaller diameter, and that's the reason why it is not used and won't be used.
You can continue to live in your fantasy world, where aluminum is used widely, I am coming from there, we are ripping it from walls and replacing it with copper.
Aluminium wiring is still being used in buildings around the world. If the country where you're from banned aluminium wiring for some odd reason, it's probably that the wiring was defective and they couldn't legally or practically replace it with anything except copper wiring.
We used to use aluminum wirings for apartments/houses in Eastern Europe during communism because it was cheaper. It turned out that it does not work, it oxides, it will cause fires in buildings. Now it is outlawed.
Usage of aluminum in any small and high power electronics will cause exactly same issues for exactly same reasons
It is a matter of fact that aluminium wiring for appartements and houses is fine as long as the wires are correctly specified for the load. It works. There are plenty of houses with aluminium wiring that have stood the test of time and plenty more which will.
It's not rocket science. Aluminium is slightly less conductive so you have to make the diameter bigger (and coat it, etc...). When you do that, it is fine.
Aluminium can be and is used in smaller, high power applications, especially when weight is a concern, as it has a higher conductivity per unit mass than copper.
The issue with aluminium wiring in practice is not the aluminium oxidizing. Aluminium oxidisation is self limiting. It is an improper connection leading to a few nanometers of oxidation at the connection site, and thus higher temperature at the site of connection leading to a fire. This is avoidable but some places feel it is easier to ban aluminium wiring than enforce proper electrical connections.
With this logic we could be storing explosives at home, because everything is fine until they explode. Aluminum in house wirings is a ticking bomb, because you just need to make one mistake during connection and this will cause fire in few days, few months or few years.
It's not a ticking time bomb. If you make a grave mistake with bad connections, then it may be an issue. But this is true of all wiring. It's just that aluminium is more sensitive to bad connections.
As long as your electrician uses approved connections and does them to spec, there is no chance of a problem.
It is just wishful thinking that your electrician did not made a single mistake. Assume he did. Then what? You will burn to death at one random night?
Aluminum also expands and contracts much more than copper when it gets hot, so it can just wiggle its way out of any connection. Furthermore aluminum is soft, and if you bend it too much, it will crack or break, so not only connection can get problematic, any corners can get easily problematic as well.
Only madman would get his house installed with aluminum wiring.
The description for the video is unpromising, blurring the distinction between reserves (known, characterized, owned) and resources (varying degrees of knowness, characterization, unowned), and implying we face a binary situation: plenty of resources, and then nothing. The world is not like that.
There is always a spectrum of possibilities. We have an extremely abundant adequate substitute for copper for electrical uses: aluminum. The bulk of electrical distribution systems is steel-cored aluminum wire.
Is copper better? Yes. Is it so much better than aluminum that the latter is unusable? No.
Aluminum's lower electrical and thermal conductivities will require design changes (higher voltage, lower current), and overall efficiency won't be as good as with copper. Very sad. But aluminum is still perfectly usable for EV motors.
And there are ways to eke out the copper we have, such as copper-clad aluminum wire (CCAW), which is already extensively used in loudspeakers. Some high currents flow in subwoofer voice coils.
As for poor people being left behind, resource prices are not the cause. Very few mineral resources are used in providing education and healthcare, and none at all in depressing wages or preventing houses from being built.
(And the high-priced vehicles being sold now pay for the R&D to improve the new technologies. The first portable computers and cell phones were ridiculously expensive toys for the rich, as well.)