"Bravo to Nick Stork and Joe Malchow ("One Man's Trash Is Another's Clean Fuel," op-ed, Nov. 21) for endorsing an energy "price system untouched by government." But in their otherwise sensible case for a bright energy future, they make a fundamental mistake by repeating a pernicious analogy: "The energy future may mirror computing's past . . . [as] is happening with lithium-ion batteries today." No, it won't, and no, it isn't.
If battery chemistry followed the arc of computing's progress, we would soon power a jumbo jet across the Atlantic with one battery the size of a cereal box. Similarly, if silicon photocells followed the trajectory of silicon transistors, we would soon power all Manhattan with a solar panel the size of a page of the Journal. Only in comic books, however, does energy technology advance at the pace of information technology (aka Moore's Law).
The analogy has got it backward. Compared with building conventional energy machines, the physical realities of fabricating batteries, solar panels and wind turbines entail a 1,000% to 7,000% greater use of mined minerals to produce the same amount of energy.
Mark P. Mills
Manhattan Institute
New York" [1]
1. Energy Tech Won't Progress Like Computing
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 01 Dec 2022: A.18.
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