Tool
What would it take?
Pick a technology and a quantity. The calculator multiplies out the material bill and puts each total next to the entire world’s annual production of that material — which is usually the number that changes how the answer feels.
1,000,000 × Vanadium Redox Flow Battery — A battery that stores its energy in two tanks of dissolved vanadium, so power and capacity scale separately.
Quantities are per MWh of storage indicative range tonnes of contained material
Scroll the table sideways for the remaining columns.
| Material | Per unit | Total, low | Total, high | World annual production | Share of a year’s supply |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vanadium Recoverable at end of life, so it is closer to a rental than a consumable. | 5.00–10.00 t | 5.00 million t | 10.00 million t | 110,000 tMine production, 2025 | 9090.9% |
| Sulfur | 3.00–8.00 t | 3.00 million t | 8.00 million t | 84.00 million tProduction, all forms, 2025 | 9.5% |
| Copper | 1.00–3.00 t | 1.00 million t | 3.00 million t | 23.00 million tMine production, 2025 | 13.0% |
Intensity ranges are indicative, compiled from published technology studies and chemistry — not a manufacturer specification. World production is USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, 2025 (estimated), converted to tonnes of the same basis where the source reports thousands of tonnes or kilograms · source ↗. This is an educational order-of-magnitude tool. It is not a procurement estimate and must not be used as one.