Tag Archives: Lithium-ion batteries

The Often Overlooked Problem With Electric Vehicles

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On Wednesday, Hot Air posted an article about an often overlooked problem with electric vehicles. Lithium batteries are prone to catch fire when exposed to salt water. So if you live on the coast, you need to get very far away from any incoming hurricane. Unfortunately, the problem does not seem to be limited to exposure to salt water.

The article reports:

Lithium-ion batteries (LIB) going boom in the worst places and what to do when that happens.

On Thursday, the 26th of September, on the freeway outside of the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, California, one of “those accidents” happened.

A tractor-trailer carrying large lithium-ion batteries overturned and caught on fire on a highway near the Port of Los Angeles on Thursday, snarling traffic and leading to road closures and the shuttering of several terminals at the port.

The Los Angeles Fire Department said in a statement Thursday night that the fire was expected to burn for at least another 24 to 48 hours and that a roughly seven-mile stretch of California State Route 47, from the Vincent Thomas Bridge to Long Beach,would be closed in that period.

The Port of Los Angeles, the busiest port in the Western Hemisphere, said that several terminals would be closed on Friday.

The crash in the San Pedro neighborhood on Thursday morning did not result in any injuries, but fire crews were taking precautions to block hazardous materials from potentially spreading from the batteries, one of which exploded, the department said.

The article notes:

In the meanwhile, Hurricane Helene was making a beeline for the Florida Coast, and FL officials were out with warnings about EVs and saltwater not mixing. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis urged EV owners this week to get their vehicles to higher ground before Hurricane Helene arrived. Although the problem is rare, there have been a number of instances in recent years of electric vehicles igniting after hurricanes.

Keeping electric vehicles out of standing water is the best way to avoid the possibility of a fire.

Tesla offers similar advice about avoiding letting its vehicles become submerged if at all possible, but if that does happen the carmaker suggests towing the vehicle at least 50 feet away from structures or anything combustible until it can be inspected by a mechanic.

The article also notes that the vehicle may ignite well after you thought the danger was over. There is also the issue of what fumes may be released during the fire or the fact that a lithium fire is very difficult to put out. It really is time to re-evaluate the value of the current generation of electric vehicles.

Public Safety vs. Green Energy

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On Sunday, The New York Post posted an article about the number of fires caused by lithium-ion batteries from e-bikes in the last two months.

The article reports:

FDNY Chief Fire Marshal Daniel Flynn told The Post that fires related to lithium-ion batteries have gone up nearly nine-fold since the pandemic, with more blazes related to the batteries happening in the last two months than in all of 2019.

“It’s the prevalence of these e-devices on our streets, there’s way more of them now than ever before,” Flynn said.

The fire chief attributed the popularity of the e-bikes and scooters to the “gig economy” boom in 2020, which saw people purchase the devices on the cheap-side in droves to do delivery jobs.

He added that the vehicles have also become popular among commuters.

“People bought these devices some three years ago, and now they’re aging,” he said, noting that many don’t know the dangers caused by the wear-and-tear on the batteries’ energy cells.

“We’ve seen people try to fix it or modify it themselves, go to shops from unauthorized vendors or take it on themselves to replace the old batteries,” he added. “We tell people not to go with the cheapest option and seek out the manufacturer directly.”

It’s this improper maintenance and defects from older models that have caused a number of blazes related to lithium-ion batteries to soar, according to the FDNY.

While there were only 30 fires related to the batteries in 2019, the number more than tripled by 2021, with 104 fires reported. That year also saw four fatalities, while no one was reported to have died from the blazes in 2019 or 2020.

Part of the problem is the use of improper replacement batteries:

FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh vowed in February to continue cracking down on businesses that offer to replace individual battery cells from old ones, a fire code violation that creates what she called “Frankenstein batteries.”

“They kill people, they have killed people and they will kill more people if businesses continue to operate in this manner,” Kavanagh said.

But while New York has pushed businesses and consumers to follow new UL standards for the batteries, Flynn noted that there was little the city could do about older units coming in from other states that do not require such regulations.

I think the technology needs some work.

The Emperor’s New Clothes

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“Green energy is the answer to all of our environmental problems,” cries the Biden administration. Never mind the toxic waste created when the solar panels or windmill blades outlive their usefulness. Never mind the toxic chemicals used in the manufacture of solar panels. Never mind the bald eagles being shredded by the windmills. We can overlook those details. However, there is one detail that cannot be overlooked.

On Sunday, The Daily Caller posted an article about a current problem with green energy.

The article reports:

  • Wind and solar companies have reported massive profit declines over the last year as clean energy prices have risen and new installations have been delayed thanks to supply chain shortfalls, market uncertainty and the Ukraine crisis.
  • “One of the problems with this industry as a whole is that, since at its very foundation it is based on government subsidies and government mandates, its market value is never truly known,” said Daniel Turner, the executive director of Power the Future.
  • “90% to 95% of the supply chain does not exist,” RJ Scaringe, CEO of electric vehicle maker Rivian, told reporters in April, according to The Wall Street Journal.

This is what happens when the government interferes in the free market.

The article reports:

The average price for renewable energy technology in North America increased an “astounding” 28.5% between early 2021 and early 2022, according to an April 13 report from renewable industry marketplace LevelTen Energy. Development costs, supply chain issues and market uncertainty are to blame for the setback even as demand for green energy climbed, the report added.

In addition, wind and solar project completions in the U.S. have plummeted over the last two years with the total investment value of such projects falling from $46.2 billion in 2019 to $7.5 billion in 2021, an Industrial Info Resources report published on April 21 showed. In that same time span, the number of wind and solar project completions has decreased from 240 to just 66, a 73% decline.

“Difficulty in obtaining financing, regulatory challenges, or a shortage of available capacity on the transmission grid are three longstanding challenges to getting renewable generation built,” Industrial Info Resources Vice President of Research for the Global Power Industry Britt Burt said in a statement.

“As long as these myriad headwinds persist, we can expect elevated [prices] across North America,” Gia Clark, a senior director at LevelTen Energy, said earlier in April.

The article concludes:

Meanwhile, the head of leading electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian warned that building out the battery supply chain — which includes mining and refining minerals, and assembling costly battery packs — remains a massive hurdle for the industry as governments push increasingly aggressive transition policies, The Wall Street Journal reported. For instance, Biden has promised to craft policies to ensure 50% of new vehicle sales in the U.S. are emissions-free by 2030 and every addition to the federal government’s 600,000-vehicle fleet is electric by 2035.

“Put very simply, all the world’s cell production combined represents well under 10% of what we will need in 10 years,” RJ Scaringe, Rivian’s CEO, told reporters in April, according to the WSJ. “Meaning, 90% to 95% of the supply chain does not exist.”

Kish noted that the price of lithium has risen 1,000% over the last two years.

The green energy market is not yet ready for prime time. It will never be unless the government gets out of the way. Government subsidies do not help an industry–they skew the growth curve by not weeding out the inferior products. When the market place allows companies with superior products to grow because they have a superior product, an industry progresses. When the government is paying the bills, there is no incentive to progress.

What The Mainstream Media Isn’t Telling You About Electric Cars

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The Biden administration is attempting to shift America from gasoline-powered cars to electric-powered cars. However, there are a lot of things that they are not telling Americans about what is involved in that shift. We were given a clue recently when California, which has a lot of electric cars, asked the owners of those cars not to charge their vehicles because of power shortages. There are some valid questions as to whether or not the American power grid has the ability to support the widespread use of electric cars. It is also interesting that just as America became capable of being energy independent (we enjoyed energy independence under the Trump administration) because of natural gas and petroleum resources, the Biden administration decided not to use those domestic resources and is instead proposing something that would put America at the mercy of foreign supply chains.

Lets look at some of the environmental facts regarding electric vehicles. First of all, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the typical electric car contains six times more minerals than a gas-powered car.

In May 2021, the IEA reported the following:

The special report, The Role of Critical Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions, is the most comprehensive global study to date on the central importance of minerals such as copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements in a secure and rapid transformation of the global energy sector. Building on the IEA’s longstanding leadership role in energy security, the report recommends six key areas of action for policy makers to ensure that critical minerals enable an accelerated transition to clean energy rather than becoming a bottleneck.

“Today, the data shows a looming mismatch between the world’s strengthened climate ambitions and the availability of critical minerals that are essential to realising those ambitions,” said Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the IEA. “The challenges are not insurmountable, but governments must give clear signals about how they plan to turn their climate pledges into action. By acting now and acting together, they can significantly reduce the risks of price volatility and supply disruptions.”

“Left unaddressed, these potential vulnerabilities could make global progress towards a clean energy future slower and more costly – and therefore hamper international efforts to tackle climate change,” Dr Birol said. “This is what energy security looks like in the 21st century, and the IEA is fully committed to helping governments ensure that these hazards don’t derail the global drive to accelerate energy transitions.”

Keep in mind that the IEA is one of the groups supporting getting away from fossil fuels. Somehow getting away from fossil fuels was not a worldwide goal until it was discovered that America had a lifetime supply of fossil fuels.

So lets look at some of the minerals involved. Although America has large lithium reserves, we only have one lithium mine. Mining lithium is energy-intensive and polluting.

In 2018 Fair Planet noted:

Behind a burgeoning demand for cobalt, a key component in Lithium-ion batteries used in electronic gadgets and vehicles, is the heartrending story of tens of thousands of children, some as young as seven, involved in back breaking and hazardous mining of the precious commodity in the Democratic Republic of Congo while earning a paltry one dollar a day.

Yet this represents a small fraction of a practice now entrenched world over with studies estimating that up to one million children are working in mines globally.

From the gold fields of Tanzania, Mali and Ghana to diamonds in the Central Africa Republic, these young ones will work for up to 24 hours a day digging deep pits to reach the minerals, breaking stones, and carrying heavy loads while being exposed to some of the most harmful toxins like mercury which they use to process the minerals.

There’s more. Nickel mining in Indonesia is a major source of pollution. Coal produces a large portion of the electricity used around the world (particularly in China). More electricity will be needed to power the electric cars the environmentalists are encouraging all of us to buy. Lithium-ion batteries need to be recycled properly–if not properly recycled, they can cause fires.

The bottom line is simple–we don’t know as much about electric cars as we should before we encourage the replacement of gasoline engines. Moving to electric cars may actually cause more harm to the environment than gasoline-powered cars.