Yes Patsy I am Australian. You a Brit? We have to believe it is not too late. We have to lay the blame firmly at the feet of your nation's forefathers for starting the Industrial Revolution. No offence.
@Craig Swanson A wonderful series of historical novels by William Stuart Long chronicled the tumultuous history of Australia. The first was "The Exiles", outlining the beginnings of the movement of prison incarcerees from England to Australia. "In the late 1700s, fifteen-year-old Jenny Taggart is falsely accused of theft and sentenced to exile in Australia, where she must learn to survive and somehow make a new life for herself among thieves and murderers...." During the early few books Captain William Bligh is named Governor of Australia; I believe this was after the famed Mutiny on the Bounty. He faced terrible odds against a corrupt defacto leadership there, was charged with treason, I believe it was, and exonerated. It is a most wondrous story of the early beginnings of Australia. I wonder what portion of that history is taught in the public schools, that the bulk of the descendants of those early settlers were considered criminals, and banished there? Frank
Yea - a Brit and would not be offended at all I don't blame the Industrial revolution though, I blame the past 50 years and a terrible lack of foresight from the 'mega bucks' idiots that only see dollar and pound signs. A simple case is that of plastic waste that was churned out at an alarming rate. Simple measures could have been taken, but only acknowledged when hard pressure is exerted. Surely its too late ………...
No Patsy I dont think we have left it too late. Plastic is already being abandoned. Here in my state we no longer allow plastic bags to hold our shopping. I understand other states are also following that policy. Qantas our national airline has become the first airline to dispense with plastic items. You can bet that other airlines will follow suit. We have to believe their is still hope for the planet for our kids kids.
I can only hope you're right, I know countries are now waking up, but its an immense task to rid the oceans and rivers of plastic waste but, 'if' we can do that - then there is hope in that particular area
The QLD Electric Super Highway (see link) is the world's longest EV highway in a single state (1800kms) Built in 2017/18 it allows tourists to travel along Australia's Northern Eastern Seaboard from Coolangatta to Cairns in a low or zero emissions vehicle charged by Australian Tritium EV Super Chargers (below pic). https://assets.atdw-online.com.au/images/1ec5258eac7dfccccad545fe9b312f70.jpeg?rect=0,0,2048,1536&w=1200&rot=360
This is throwing me for a "loop". Whatever does Tritium have to do with charging of batteries? Or, is "tritium" as a word, being used as a promotional gimmick? Frank
Tritium is the name of the company that makes the super chargers. It has been given the contract to provide chargers for India's Tata EV fleet. This is their product.
There must be some detail online regarding the disposal of old batteries @Bobby Cole. I subscribe to a regular renewable energy newsletter. Will peruse these to find the answer for you.
This is the first talk of Australia actually planning to manufacture EVs. This is small bickies.. but is a start. The opposition Labor Party has to win government tho. It is promising to invest $A57m. with a focus on electric vehicles, to re-ignite Australia’s car manufacturing industry which went west with the closures in recent years of Holden, Ford and Toyota factories. $A30 m. would be used towards creating research and development into Australia’s fledgling EV industry while a further $A25 m. will go towards businesses and enterprises grants geared towards component research and manufacture. The remaining $A2 million will be for establishing an EV battery making facility in Geelong, Victoria in collaboration with Deakin University using sodium-ion technology
The Japanese have come up with this idea to tackle the problem @Bobby Cole. Well, one popular solution is to re-use them as power storage for domestic and commercial buildings. Nissan recently launched the largest power storage facility in Europe to use both new and used car batteries; the Johan Cruyff Arena in Amsterdam uses 63 second-hand EV battery packs and 85 new battery packs, which feed off of 4,200 solar panels on the stadium roof. This doesn’t mean that the stadium is off grid, although it is capable of powering the entire venue during an event for up to an hour (the equivalent of providing energy for 700,000 domestic homes) if necessary. Rather, Nissan’s battery-powered energy storage system acts as a generator that can back up the stadium’s energy supply during times of heavy power usage, reducing the strain on the grid at peak times.
An update on that battery recycle story @Bobby Cole. Published last month by Australia's CSIRO. The Australian recycling landscape for lithium-ion batteries is in transition. Previously, disposal to landfill and export of wastes for processing were the primary recycling pathways, with little or no emphasis on local and onshore processing of these wastes. However, there are now significant policy and regulation, economic, social, technical and environmental drivers for the development of an onshore processing industry for lithium-ion battery wastes. This study aimed to define the current and future landscapes of the lithium-ion battery (LIB) recycling industry in Australia. A desktop review supplemented with key stakeholder interviews to identify the critical industrial and strategic drivers as well as challenges and constraints for the development of the industry. When considering the projected growth in consumption and demand for portable equipment and electronic vehicles, the potential economic gains for LIB materials, the lack of infrastructure and capacity to process these wastes and developing policy and regulation regarding their management, Australia is in the perfect position to drive technology development and innovation to support this newly developing industry. Research associated with economic modelling, materials tracking and clear regulations associated with waste disposal and product stewardship are required to support Australia's transition to recycling of LIB and other batteries onshore.
China is also doing something. Last September, Beijing issued its first set of industry guidelines for EV battery recycling, including a white list of five recycling companies. Among them is Shenzhen-based GEM. One of the biggest battery recyclers in China, the company handles over 3 million tons of waste resources each year and produces 20% of the country's reclaimed cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries by volume. GEM has reportedly raised 2.95 billion yuan ($500 million) in capital to beef up its recycling abilities. The same month as the list was released, the company announced it will construct facilities for recycling car batteries and metals in Ningde, a city in southern China that is home to the world's biggest battery maker, CATL. The new facilities will reportedly cover some 60 hectares.