To achieve the decarburization of transportation, it is necessary to quickly expand the production of electric vehicles and large -scale, and this is to expand the mining and refining of battery minerals. The battery also needs to expand the deployment of renewable energy in an efficient and effective way. Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, a leading agency in tracking and analyzing lithium market information, concluded that by 2050, the lithium market will need to expand to 25 times or more at the level of 2021.
Although many people focus on the electric vehicle market and all the required lithium, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence believes that by then, fixed energy storage will be the main driver of demand -then, it is expected to produce 1120 a year each year. 10,000 tons of lithium, 1/3 of which are used for fixed energy storage.
Analysts predict that by 2032, the annual output of LCE (lithium carbonate) will reach 2.9 million tons. Considering that from 2015 to 2022, a total of 2.7 million tons of LCE were produced. By 2040, it is expected that one month of lithium demand will be equivalent to all battery -level lithium produced in 2021
According to Benchmark, by 2022, 40 lithium mining investment in production has been produced. The company predicts that if the battery is not recovered, 234 lithium mines will be built by 2050 (of course, this is completely unrealistic, but this is the starting point of this analysis). In terms of recycling, "Benchmark predicts that by 2040, nearly 20%of lithium chemicals will be produced by recycled batteries or process waste." At present and in the near future, due to the relatively small number of old electric vehicles on the road, there are few lithium recycled lithium. Electric vehicle batteries from recycled — instead, they mainly come from process waste. It is estimated that starting at some time in the mid -1930s, the lithium in recycling the battery will account for the largest share, and then the proportion will become increasing.
Benchmark also pointed out that in 2015, electric vehicle battery demand accounted for 39%of the total battery demand, but this year has risen to 79%. However, as mentioned above, Benchmark expects that by 2050, 67%of battery demand will come from a fixed energy storage market, only 33%of the electric vehicle battery market. Nevertheless, because the EU's goal is no longer selling fossil fuel vehicles by 2050, the electric vehicle market needs to achieve a significant increase in electric vehicle battery production.
