Why not put the electricity directly into the EV?
That would require the creation of overhead powerlines like trains. But even when you use batteries to charge at your home, the infrastructure is insufficient to transport all household energy by copper cable. My brother in law has solar panels, in a sunny day his circuit breakers popped. It turned out 3 of the 12 houses in his block had solar panels, and they all fed into the same phase. Switching to another phase solved their problem, till another neighbour decides to get solar panels, and the entire block would need new underground wires.
And if storing electricity in an EV's battery is not cost prohibitive then why not for home use too?.
Theres too few ! Too few cobalt, neodymium, nickel, all the stuff that goes in batteries and/or permanent magnets. If we switch to electricity as our single power medium (its not a source: just like hydrogen, its a storage means) and store it all in batteries, prices of rare earth minerals, and metals that occur in ore as well, will skyrocket.
Electrolysis is by no stretch of the definition, "slightly lower efficiency". Is so bad the primary source of H2 is natural gas.
True. Though the primary source of electricity is coal.. which you could also use to generate electricity for electrolysis.
The conversion rate of electrolysis of water into oxygen and hydrogen, is about 80%. Its slightly less efficient than the battery charge and release losses, with just some platinum required, instead of a few 100 kg.
"Rare Earth minerals" are not rare. Furthermore these items are not consumed in a lithium battery or electric motor. Therefore are ripe for the picking come time for salvage. The only reason we do not mine "rare earths" in the USA is unreasoned bias by the EPA such as that exhibited by Renze.
...just re-read what you just wrote: Calling unreasoned bias, and an Ad Hominem in the same line
Rare earth minerals arent rare, they are just extremely diluted, unlike concentrated ore deposits of platinum for aforementioned fuel cell: the paydirt is washed in chemicals in which the rare earth minerals dissolve, then they are taken out of the chemical fluid. The paydirt is contaminated and a huge environmental hazard. THATS why it isnt mined in Western countries:
Rare-earth mining in China comes at a heavy cost for local villages | Environment | The Guardian
Now if we invest in molten salt reactors (which were abandoned in the 50s because the US government needed the nuclear waste of what we now see as a "conventional" reactor, for the nuclear aems race) we could have truely clean energy, the molten salt reactor is plugged by a cooled drainpipe: the cooling keeps the salt solid. when the power fails, like Fukushima or Chernobyl, the cooler stops, the salt plug in the drain pipe melts and the nuclear reaction stops. Furthermore, conventional reactors use 2% of the energy in the Uranium before it needs reprocessing, which is more expensive than getting new. However the molten salt reactor can use this nuclear waste: 30 years of nuclear waste of the lifecycle of a conventional reactor, contains 1200 years worth of energy to be released in a molten salt reactor.
