Batteries and resource restrictions

I've prefigured a specific setting as being middling in technological progress when compared with its neighbors.

This setting does not have access to hydrocarbons, has severe cultural and political restrictions from imports, and importantly, has very limited water resources.

They have generally plentiful mineral resources which means they'd be able to access iron, aluminum, etc. They also have the ability to magically create a substance that mirrors modern plastics.

If this setting is poor in nickel, cadmium and lithium, would that be enough to stop them from having something resembling a developed, urbanized, level of electrical usage?

The water restriction means they would not be able to use thermoelectric power or biofuels. The hydrocarbon restriction means they don't have access to the stored liquid, gas, and solid fuels that we do. They are landlocked.

But, they have plentiful sunlight and wind power, and I'm considering what resource restrictions would limit the efficacy of those sources. Without reliable access to the three, listed, elements, would a corresponding inaccessibility of electrical storage result in things like only daylight power usage, or limit power draws to windy days/seasons?

There are a lot of ways to make batteries, and I'm not going to reverse-engineer a world where lead, or other more common resources are magically rare. But what does a world with electrical generation look like, without those three means to store it?

posted about 6 years ago

user49466‭

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