We may somehow find clean and reliable ways to mine, distribute, and recycle the ingredients for Li-ion batteries. We need to expand our capacity by one estimate, weвЂ™ll require at least a hundred times more storage by 2040 if we want to shift largely to renewables and avoid climate catastrophe. Experts doubt that Li-ion prices will drop more than thirty per cent below their current levels without significant technological advancements-a drop that is still too small, according to the Department of Energy. Moreover, a lot of water and energy are required for mining the metals, which can cause environmental damage, and some cobalt-mining operations involve child labor. Any disruption to the supply chain can strongly affect prices and availability. вЂњUnless we have diversity, weвЂ™re going to be in trouble,вЂќ Srinivasan said. In 2020, some seventy per cent of the worldвЂ™s cobalt came from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The batteries depend on lithium and cobalt. Venkat Srinivasan, a scientist who directs the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science ( ACCESS), at the Argonne National Laboratory, in Illinois, told me that one of the biggest problems with Li-ion batteries is their supply chain.

And batteries can catch fire-sites in South Korea have ignited dozens of times in the past few years. It is expensive to collect enough batteries to cover longer discharges.

But typical models exhaust their stored energy after only three or four hours of maximum output, and-as every iPhone owner knows-their capacity dwindles, little by little, with each recharge. Such batteries power everything from mobile phones to electric vehicles they are relatively inexpensive to make and getting cheaper. The most widespread variety is called lithium-ion, or Li-ion, after the chemical process that makes it work. Germany is decommissioning its nuclear power plants and working hard to embrace renewables, but, because of the problem of вЂњintermittencyвЂќ in its renewable power supply, it remains dependent on fossil fuels-including imported Russian gas. On a smaller scale, factories, data centers, and remote communities that want to go all-renewable need to fill the gaps. Last year, Europe experienced a weeks-long вЂњwind drought,вЂќ and in 2006 Hawaii endured six weeks of consecutive rainy days. Power companies need to plan not just for individual storms or windless nights but for Dunkelflaute that stretch for days or longer. The dark doldrums make it difficult for an electrical grid to rely totally on renewable energy.

These renewable energy sources stop renewing until the weather, or the planet, turns. But at night solar cells do little, and in calm air turbines sit useless. On a bright, cloudless day, a solar farm can generate prodigious amounts of electricity when itвЂ™s gusty, wind turbines whoosh neighborhoods to life. The German word Dunkelflaute means вЂњdark doldrums.вЂќ It chills the hearts of renewable-energy engineers, who use it to refer to the lulls when solar panels and wind turbines are thwarted by clouds, night, or still air. This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

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