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Thread: An oncoming mineral shortage may derail our green future

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    Post An oncoming mineral shortage may derail our green future

    An oncoming mineral shortage may derail our green future. Clean energy demand for critical minerals set to soar as the world pursues net zero goals.

    Clean tech like EVs and wind power require a lot of rare earth and minerals. We may not have enough to support our long-term clean energy goals.

    CF138D3D-30C9-4F3E-BD88-B6DDCB604C40.jpeg

    Humans can’t catch a break, even in the future. A recently released report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), highlighted the at-odds relationship between the surging demand for rare minerals and their tight supply.
    Experts believe this mismatch could derail countries’ efforts to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, the most recent UN goal.
    The reason…
    Green energy production is a mineral junkie

    Popular green energy solutions use a variety of rare earth metals and minerals. Two examples:
    • An electric vehicle (EV) uses 6x as many mineral resources as a fossil fuel car.
    • An offshore wind plant requires 9x as many mineral resources as a comparable gas power plant.
    According to the IEA’s analysis, manufacturers will need 6x the amount of minerals being produced today by 2040.

    FF8F1E0E-0333-4F38-905A-B1221A2271A6.png


    D23141BD-7C51-4BEB-A93B-6A33C7B5734F.jpeg


    C37EFBF5-3055-4A8D-9F97-850FF01D207E.jpeg

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    https://thehustle.co/05112021-minerals-shortage/
    Any time you give a man something he doesn't earn, you cheapen him. Our kids earn what they get, and that includes respect. -- Woody Hayes​

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    This is no profound revelation. Anyone with even a modicum of common sense could see this coming. Just as anyone with common sense knows the amount of land needed to make wind power a viable alternative energy source, is so vast as to be impossible. To say nothing about the amount of concrete and other non recyclable materials that go into windmill construction, and the high maintenance/low life cycle issues. And the destruction of avian and bat species would be catastrophic.
    Cutesy Time is OVER

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    Quote Originally Posted by countryboy View Post
    This is no profound revelation. Anyone with even a modicum of common sense could see this coming. Just as anyone with common sense knows the amount of land needed to make wind power a viable alternative energy source, is so vast as to be impossible. To say nothing about the amount of concrete and other non recyclable materials that go into windmill construction, and the high maintenance/low life cycle issues. And the destruction of avian and bat species would be catastrophic.
    I met someone recently whose son's first job was to count the dead bats at a windmill farm.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Peter1469 View Post
    I met someone recently whose son's first job was to count the dead bats at a windmill farm.
    Wow. That would be a grim job. I know a guy who contracts to count spotted owls for a few weeks a year. Live ones, lol.
    Cutesy Time is OVER

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    This is also why Green need so much subsidy to even appear to work in a free market environment. Excessive costs and limited resources are major factors involved in any new technology development.

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    Quote Originally Posted by countryboy View Post
    This is no profound revelation. Anyone with even a modicum of common sense could see this coming. Just as anyone with common sense knows the amount of land needed to make wind power a viable alternative energy source, is so vast as to be impossible. To say nothing about the amount of concrete and other non recyclable materials that go into windmill construction, and the high maintenance/low life cycle issues. And the destruction of avian and bat species would be catastrophic.
    Commons sense isn't always right and what calculations show that the amount of land needed to make wind power viable is so vast as to be impossible?

    A calculation was done by Michael Barnard on Quora and reported by Forbes.com. The amount of land needed if 100% of all the electricity in the U.S. was

    produced from wind energy is 470 square miles or 0.01% of the land. That assumes one quarter of an acre needed for each wind turbine.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2...h=269f2ddf1d96

    I don't believe that supplying enough concrete would be a problem and I don't believe that the destruction of avian and bat species would be catastrophic.

    I do believe that if the world continues along the path that we are currently on with regards to carbon emissions that global warming will be catastrophic.

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    Recycling is one strategy that can help alleviate the projected shortage of minerals needed for green energy. The amount of benefit would be low, only around a 10% reduction in needed supply.


    https://www.iea.org/reports/the-role...cutive-summary

    Recycling relieves the pressure on primary supply. For bulk metals, recycling practices are well established, but this is not yet the case for many energy transition metals such as lithium and rare earth elements. Emerging waste streams from clean energy technologies (e.g. batteries, wind turbines) can change this picture. The amount of spent EV batteries reaching the end of their first life is expected to surge after 2030, at a moment of continued rapid growth in mineral demand. Recycling would not eliminate the need for continued investment in new supply to meet climate goals, but we estimate that, by 2040, recycled quantities of copper, lithium, nickel and cobalt from spent batteries could reduce combined primary supply requirements for these minerals by around 10%. The security benefits of recycling can be far greater for regions with wider deployment of clean energy technologies due to greater economies of scale.


    IEA'S 6 Key Recommendations for Mineral Security

    1. Ensure adequate investment in diversified sources of new supply. Strong signals from policy makers about the speed of energy transitions and the growth trajectories of key clean energy technologies are critical to bring forward timely investment in new supply. Governments can play a major role in creating conditions conducive to diversified investment in the mineral supply chain.
    2. Promote technology innovation at all points along the value chain. Stepping up R&D efforts for technology innovation on both the demand and production sides can enable more efficient use of materials, allow material substitution and unlock sizeable new supplies, thereby bringing substantial environmental and security benefits.
    3. Scale up recycling.

    4. Enhance supply chain resilience and market transparency. Policy makers need to explore a range of measures to improve the resilience of supply chains for different minerals, develop response capabilities to potential supply disruptions and enhance market transparency. Measures can include regular market assessments and stress-tests, as well as strategic stockpiles in some instances.
    5. Mainstream higher environmental, social and governance standards. Efforts to incentivise higher environmental and social performance can increase sustainably and responsibly produced volumes and lower the cost of sourcing them. If players with strong environmental and social performance are rewarded in the marketplace, it can lead to greater diversification among supply.
    6. Strengthen international collaboration between producers and consumers.


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    These necessary minerals are very unevenly distributed among the world's countries with China dominating in rare earth minerals, It is in China's interest as it is for every other country in the
    world to make a contribution towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions. China is very vulnerable to sea level rise and water shortages in the western portion of the country resulting from
    reduced snow pack in the Himalayan Mountains.

    https://www.thethirdpole.net/en/clim...the-himalayas/

    "The rapid melting of glaciers and reduced snowfall in the Himalayas due to climate change will cause water and food shortage for more than eight hundred million people inhabiting the region if effective adaptation and mitigation measures are not implemented before 2030, scientists and experts said."
    “The degradation of the Himalayan ecosystem due to climate change is going to adversely impact water and food security for millions of people across South Asia and South-East Asia, including China,” Cheppudira Muthanna, the secretary for India’s Environment and Health Foundation, told thethirdpole.net last week.

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    Relax: the asteroid belt has all that we need. Although Luddites do make me laugh.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Peter1469 View Post
    Relax: the asteroid belt has all that we need. Although Luddites do make me laugh.
    We don't have access to the entire asteroid belt and asteroids don't possess the types of minerals that we need. I suppose the cost of these minerals will rise and more money
    will be invested in exploration and mining.

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