Kitaab

We need to talk about Batteries

blog

published 2023-02-15 05:48

updated 2023-02-15 06:08

Batteries are the future we are told. They will solve problems with renewable energy, and allow us to continue our conquest for domination of the Universe. Whether this turns out to be true, depends on a lot on how we use them. The batteries we use are still costly to make. We must mine Cobalt, Lithium and various other metals, each causing various problems with their production (to put it mildly in some extreme cases). The energy that powers the factory that makes the batteries still largely depend on fossil fuels.

How many battery powered devices do you own? What's the oldest device you actively use that has a battery? How often do you go through your most frequently changed battery powered devices? Do you replace batteries on your devices? Would you know how to replace them yourself?

Eventually we will run out of easy to gather deposits of these resources too. The perpetual energy machine will forever remain an impossibility, let's not act like we've made one.