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New JRC report highlights risk of rare earth metal shortages
- Rare Earth Elements
A new JRC report revealed that five metals, essential for manufacturing low-carbon technologies, show a high risk of shortage. Reasons for this lie in Europe’s dependency on imports, increasing global demand, supply concentration and geopolitical issues.
Scientists at the JRC’s Institute for Energy and Transport (IET) examined the use of raw materials, especially metals, in the six priority low-carbon energy technologies of the Commission’s SET-Plan: nuclear, solar, wind, bio-energy, carbon capture and storage and electricity grids.
The findings were that a large-scale deployment of solar energy technologies, for example, will require half the current world supply of tellurium and 25% of the supply of indium. At the same time, the envisaged deployment of wind energy technology in Europe will require large amounts of neodymium and dysprosium for permanent magnet generators.
The report considers possible strategies to avoid or mitigate shortage of these metals, for instance through recycling, increasing Europe’s own production of such metals and by developing of alternative technologies that rely on more common materials.
In the near future the JRC will conduct similar studies on other energy technologies that also use critical metals, such as electric vehicles, electricity storage, lighting and fuel cells.
By: Peggy Greb
Source: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/jrc/index.cfm?id=1410&obj_id=14150&dt_code=NWS&lang=en
JRC Report Reveals Five Rare Earth Metals Show High Scarcity Risk
Rare Earth Metal - Indium
The study titled ‘Critical Metals in Strategic Energy Technologies’ conducted by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) has revealed that five rare earth metals, which include gallium, tellurium, indium, dysprosium and neodymium, used in the production of low-carbon technologies are at risk of scarcity.
According to the study, the causes of scarcity of these metals are geopolitical problems, supply concentration, rising global demand and Europe’s reliance on imports. Moreover, these materials cannot be replaceable or recyclable easily. This study has been conducted subsequent to the publication of a European Commission report on essential raw materials at European Union in 2010.
The study suggests plans to eliminate scarcity so as to implement the Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan of the European Commission to gear up the development and implementation of low-carbon technologies. The study covers the utilization of raw materials, primarily metals, in the six major low-carbon technologies of the SET Plan such as electricity grids, carbon capture and storage, bio-energy, wind, solar and nuclear.
For instance, a large-scale solar power installation will need 25% of the current global supply of indium and 50% of the supply of tellurium, while a large wind power farm will need significant quantities of dysprosium and neodymium for its permanent magnet generators. China supplies almost all these metals to Europe.
The study recommends possible strategies to eliminate or reduce scarcity of these materials through replacing with other less essential materials, implementing alternative technologies and augmenting primary production of Europe by opening dormant or new mines and promoting reutilization and recycling. The JRC will conduct similar studies in the coming years on other energy technologies utilizing critical metals including fuel cells, lighting, electricity storage, and electric vehicles.
Source: http://www.jrc.ec.europa.eu
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