We Might Not Have Enough Materials for All the Solar Panels and Wind Turbines We Need
We'll need to be mining a dozen times as many metals to meet demand for wind turbines and solar panels by 2050.
image
By Avery Thompson
Dec 13, 2018
If we want to stop climate change, we’ll have to stop pumping out carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In order to do that, we’ll need to replace all the sources of carbon pollution—like fossil fuel plants and combustion vehicles—with clean, renewable alternatives. But there’s a problem: According to a new study, we might not have enough materials to make that happen.
Plenty of high-tech electronic components, like solar panels, rechargeable batteries, and complex circuits, require specific rare metals. These can include magnetic neodymium, electronic indium, and silver, along with lesser-known metals like praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium. These metals are mined in large quantities in countries around the world, and they make their way into the supply chains of all sorts of electronics and renewables companies.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a25576543/renewable-limits-materials-dutch-ministry-infrastructure/?source=nl&utm_source=nl_pop&utm_medium=email&date=121418&src=nl&utm_campaign=15416426
