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A U G U S T / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 9
ENERGY METALS
THIS COULD BE THE START OF SOMETHING BIG
Energy metals poised for massive
ramp-up in demand
by Ron Hall
T
he growing push towards replacing
traditional fossil fuel derived energy
sources with renewables has seen
increased attention on the so called "energy
metals" i.e. those metals that are key to the
future generation, storage and use of electri
-
cal energy.
Solar and wind energy are considered
by many to be the panacea for all things
fossil but it might not be so easy to con-
tinue rampant growth in these sectors.
Both require specific exotic metals such as
neodymium, indium and silver along with
much rarer praseodymium and dysprosium
in their manufacture and the demand may
not be able to keep up with the supply.
According to a recent article in online
Popular Mechanics magazine, by 2050 solar
panels and wind turbines will require
around 12 times as much indium as the
entire world produces right now; neo
-
dymium production will have to grow by
more than seven times, and silver will have
to grow by nearly three times. And this is
just for renewable energy; all of these met-
als have various uses in other industries.
If solar and wind alone cannot replace
the world's reliance on fossil fuels, then
what about nuclear? Both nuclear and
fossil-fuelled power stations use heat to
produce steam that drives turbines and
generators to generate electricity. But in a
nuclear power station it is the fissioning of
uranium atoms that replaces the burning
of coal, oil, diesel or gas.
Nuclear plants can produce an enor
-
mous amount of energy with no carbon
emissions – one tonne of uranium gener-
ates the same amount of energy as burning
130,000 tonnes of coal. Nuclear power can
be generated consistently, where wind
and solar are intermittent by nature. But
