Aluminum Economy for Sustainable Development: Aluminium as Core Material for Energy Storage and Energy Saving Products: Low Cost, High Performance, and Easy Processing in Developing Countries

The "Aluminium Economy" is put forward as an attractive basis for an energy efficient community. As energy storage medium, aluminium batteries have high specific energy density and simple, safe construction. Aluminium is also demonstrating low-cost and high performance in energy related applications such as electric cable, light weight vehicle, building material, LED heat-sink, and solar reflector. It is particularly suited to developing countries with ease and safety of handling plus affordability. With well-conceived bootstrap strategy, clusters of businesses can be formed in developing countries to quickly bring them to the modern era with self-supported electricity and other renewable energies. Riding on the annual capacity of over 24 billion kilograms primary aluminium production and a mature industry infrastructure of recycling and processing, aluminium alloy slabs and extrusion products can be used as basis of energy efficient products for use in developing countries. Processing workshops, manufacturers, and recycling services can be established. Aluminum air battery stations provide battery swapping or aluminium electrode refill service, which can be used to power off-grid households and small business stalls reliably with smelting done initially through established aluminium enterprises worldwide and finally through local mini-mills using renewable energy. So people get a jumpstart to energy efficient transportation, built environment, lighting as well as convenient electricity and self-support ability for on-going development with minimal startup financing and delay. They also save substantially on energy and health cost for rapid migration up the development path.