Green Fever

Our dependence on fossil fuels is supposed to be solved by the electrification of everything. But will it be fair?

Human civilisation, progress and our standard of living are fundamentally dependent on energy. Yet, energy sources are scarce—and some of them are proving to be fatal to civilisation. In recent years, we have therefore witnessed immense pressure to transition from fossil fuels to sustainable and green alternatives: solar radiation, wind, hydropower, and perhaps one day even nuclear fusion. However, these sources bring a new challenge—how to store and distribute such energy, how to make full use of it? The technology of charging, and electric cars in particular, have thus become symbols of the green transformation. But in the future, batteries are set to be used in areas other than transport. An inexorable race has therefore broken out to see who can most efficiently mine the necessary rare metals and minerals, process them, satisfy the whole world with their production, and at the same time preserve their technological and business secrets, as well as the favour of governments. In his book Volt Rush, journalist Henry Sanderson travels from Chile through the Congo to China, visiting mines, laboratories and huge factories, interviewing speculators, scientists and billionaires, and trying to glimpse the future that green energy is supposed to bring. It is an ecological future, but one that is far from free of power struggles.

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A convincing reminder to green energy advocates that a world running on batteries and sunshine may not fight over oil, but it will probably not avoid conflict either.
— Financial Times