[ed_at_work]

So, that's cool and all. I love green tech. And I hate fossil fuels. Buuuuuuut, aren't we going to have the same issue with supplies of lithium that we are having with fossil fuels? Unless we have a dramatic shift in renewable battery tech, we're still painting ourselves into a corner with the giant battery trent.

[CydeWeys]

The big difference is that fossil fuels are burnt, lithium is not. Lithium can also be recycled once batteries hit end of life.

But lithium is just one of many possible battery chemistries. And you're not even limited to chemical batteries; potential energy ones work at grid scale too; all you need to do is pump water uphill.

[ravedave5]

Once you burn a fossil fuel it's gone. When a battery stops charging properly you can recycle the lithium in that cell.

[NickM]

The cost of lithium is a pretty small portion of the cost of the batteries, and in the worst case scenario we can extract an effectively unlimited amount of lithium from seawater; it would make batteries a little more expensive but by that time costs will presumably have fallen much further.