I feel slightly guilty for stealing all those WeWork-branded cups now.

The potato paradox is a mathematical calculation that has a counter-intuitive result. "You have 100kg of potatoes, which are 99% water by weight. You let them dehydrate until they're 98% water. How much do they weigh now?" The surprising answer is 50kg

Who likes a nice animation? 🤓🔋 Here you find out when lithium-ion batteries will be the most competitive for providing peak capacity (PC)... Or when is hydrogen becomes the best for integrating renewables (RE)? Let's walk through the cheapest storage technologies over time.

The biggest EV manufacturer in the world is investing $1.4bn in a 30GWh sodium-ion gigafactory - big enough to make ~1mn sodium-ion EVs a year. I've been saying it for about a year now: sodium-ion will be 50% of the Chinese EV market by 2030.

Fine, it can go into EVs, but only in China. Fine, *small amounts* will be sold in the west. Ok, the west is developing it now, but it'll still take 10+ years to build the supply chain. (<--we are here) Northvolt develops state-of-the-art Na-ion battery northvolt.com/articles/north…

One more Na-ion tweet before I get back to my day job: Most people don't like this prediction. But it's usually the same people who think that China NEV sales are going to triple between now and 2030. We don't have a supply chain for that yet either, so what's the difference?

All the signs were there. #lithium

One of the (many) reasons I started taking the #lithium oversupply story seriously in late-2022 / early-2023 was the inundation of messages in my LinkedIn inbox from people trying to sell African-origin material to me.

It's refreshing to see analysts reporting on the impact of material availability on battery chemistry - as Andy Leyland highlights, there have been at least 3 times since 2016 when material prices have influenced chemistry trajectory. Looking forward to tuning in later.

Bikita Lithium Mine, now owned by the Sinomine Resource Group, has an unusual history. The mine first opened as a joint venture between socialsit Yugoslavia and British investors financed with compensation money paid after Yugoslavia nationalised British-owned mines in 1946.

The sodium ion story marches relentlessly on. BYD's 1st sodium-ion battery facility begins construction cnevpost.com/2024/01/05/byd…

I 😍 nuclear power! (HT Jesse Peltan)

PR NEWSWIRE: George Heppel Ltd and Ruth Angus PLC are pleased to announce an all-stock Merger of Equals with immediate effect. The new cross-industrial merger will focus on a wide range of commercial functions including metal trading, neuroscience, bespoke artwork and biscotti.

First BHP, then Glencore. Now, another bidder enters the ring...

In the ten years that it's taken to build a second staircase at Surbiton Railway Station in Southwest London, China has built 30,000km of high-speed railtrack.

The best (and perhaps only) way to achieve a mass-market €20k EV in Europe is to sign an LTSA for Na-ion cells from Asia, ship them over in bulk and assemble the car in Europe. cleantechnica.com/2024/05/29/fro…

Looks like I might live to regret this email. #lithium

#batteries twitter, we really need to come up with a collective noun for EREVs and PHEVs together. "Plug-ins" doesn't work, nor does "hybrids". You can't call them both "plug-in hybrids" for obvious reasons. "Binary drivetrains"? "Dual-system"? "Goldilocks cars"?