About lead
Modern lead batteries are innovative, reliable, and sustainable – and an essential part of Europe’s energy mix. From powering vehicles to storing renewable energy from wind and solar, to providing emergency power for hospitals, telecoms, and computer systems, they play a vital role in our day-to-day life.
- Battery powered vehicles such as fork lift trucks are non-polluting, quiet and low on maintenance costs
- A lead acid battery is a vital component in each of the 60 million petrol and diesel vehicles produced worldwide each year
- Hospitals, the emergency services, telephone exchanges and public buildings rely on lead-acid batteries as back-up in case of mains power failure
- 80% of modern lead usage is in the production of batteries of which almost 100 % are reccycled
- A lead roof will outlast any other traditional building material, sometimes by hundreds of years
- As a barrier to radiation, lead is unrivalled and essential in hospitals, dentists’ surgeries, laboratories and nuclear installations
- Since 2000 the lead industry has sponsored over US$3 million of independent research into the health and environmental impacts of lead
Whilst it is still used for its malleability and corrosion resistance, it is now its chemical properties that make it a thoroughly modern metal. Today’s uses are focused on power and protection; in radiation protection, underwater power and communication cables, vehicle batteries, electric vehicle batteries and in batteries operating emergency power supplies.
Cover image: Boliden lead bars 3. Photo credit: Stefan Berg Boliden