Comment by Tade0
7 months ago
It's a non-issue. Copper isn't that short in supply.
A typical car uses ~25kg of copper - that's enough for approximately 0.5m of HVDC.
The EU currently produces 12mln cars annually, down 3mln from the 2017 peak.
In other words there should be no issue with ramping up demand for the equivalent of 1500km of HVDC annually in the EU alone - a rate much higher than the local bureaucracy could manage issuing permits for.
Do any of these HVDC lines really use copper? I think aluminum is much much more common.
I'm no expert but it appears both materials are used - there must be a trade-off of some sort.