Like the one report that warned us that the earth didn't have enough lithium to electrify everything.
Turns out they calculated that we need, for some reason, enough batteries to store a full month's worth of global electricity production in batteries. No wonder they got the fancy headline :D
Should be noted that fuel cells are batteries. We can already eliminate this problem right away. But we must "wait" for future batteries for no reason at all.
No, fuel cells consume fuel; effectively they are oxidising it in order to make electricity directly. For a hydrogen fuel cell, you still need to add hydrogen when it runs out. Whereas a battery (in the accepted usage of the word) is self-contained - electricity can be pumped in to recharge it, but no fuel.
Fuel cells do not consume fuel. It converts hydrogen and oxygen into water. You can reconvert water back into hydrogen and oxygen. You can conceive of a fully closed-cycle system for this.
But it's not worth it, since you are just carrying a big tank of water for no reason. It is a smarter solution that a battery which does carry everything at all times.
Like the one report that warned us that the earth didn't have enough lithium to electrify everything.
Turns out they calculated that we need, for some reason, enough batteries to store a full month's worth of global electricity production in batteries. No wonder they got the fancy headline :D
Battery tech is constantly evolving. There are cobalt-free and lithium-free batteries in the pipeline already. We even have wood-based batteries on experimental stage: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20221215-the-batteries-ma...