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RESOURCE CRISIS: Renewable energy: does it need critically rare materials?

November 23, 2014

RESOURCE CRISIS: Renewable energy: does it need critically rare materials?.

Renewable energy, by definition, is inexhaustible or, at least, it can tap the sun’s energy for times that can be considered infinite from our viewpoint. However, renewable energy doesn’t live of sun alone. It needs metals, semiconductors, ceramics and more. A criticism often leveled against renewable energy is that it is not really “renewable” because it uses elements which exist in limited amounts and cannot be recycled.

The question is complex and it depends on the kind of energy we are considering. For instance, in the case of solar cells, some use exotic and rare materials such as gallium or tellurium. However, the standard version on the market uses almost exclusively silicon and aluminum for the cell. The only rare element in it is silver for the back contact, butit can be eliminated with minimal or no loss. In several other cases of renewable technologies, rare metals are not used or can be efficiently recycled. 

A recent (2014) study on this subject has been performed by the Wuppertal Institute. The conclusion is that the problem of mineral availability for renewable energy technologies is not critical if we choose the right technologies and we are careful to recycle the materials used as much as possible.

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