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green energy? The materials that will enable it will never run out - Walla! Of money

2021-05-23T03:31:22.567Z


A new and comprehensive report by the International Energy Agency points to a possible and worrying shortage of rare metals and minerals that are a necessary raw material for the transition to clean energy. Will the solution come from encouraging investment in mining projects or rather from new technological developments?


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green energy?

The materials that will enable it will never run out

A new and comprehensive report by the International Energy Agency points to a possible and worrying shortage of rare metals and minerals that are a necessary raw material for the transition to clean energy. Will the solution come from encouraging investment in mining projects or rather from new technological developments?

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  • green energy

  • Minerals

Shai Levy, Angle

Friday, 21 May 2021, 01:26

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In the video: The materials without which there would be no green energy (angle)

The article was prepared by angle - the news agency of the Israel Society of Ecology and Environmental Sciences



"The world will not be able to successfully deal with the climate crisis, unless you apply a sharp increase in the supply of metals needed to manufacture electric cars, solar panels, wind turbines and clean energy technologies other", according to A new report from the International Energy Agency, IEA, published in early May 2021.



According to the report, the transition of countries and companies to the production and use of renewable energy significantly boosted global demand for copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt and the so-called metals group (rare elements REE ). According to the IEA, these raw materials are exposed to price volatility and even a possible shortage, which could hamper efforts to switch to more comprehensive use of energy from renewable sources.



Another risk factor in this area highlighted in the report is the limited access to mineral reserves. Unlike oil - produced in various countries around the world and traded in liquid markets - the production and processing of many minerals on Earth is highly concentrated in only three countries, which together control more than 75 percent From the global output of lithium, cobalt and rare elements. For example, the Democratic Republic of Congo was responsible for 70 percent of global cobalt production in 2019. China produced 60 percent of the rare elements (Australia is the third largest producer of these rare substances).

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"Gradual and insufficient action"

In the past, large mining companies have responded to the growing demand by increasing their investments in new mineral mining projects.

However, according to IEA data, an average of 16 years pass from the discovery of a reservoir to the start of production of the mine.

Therefore, the IEA warned that current investment plans would achieve "gradual and insufficient action in the fight against climate change".



"These risks to availability, sustainability and reliance on the supply of minerals are manageable, but are tangible and real," the agency said in a report.

Without lithium - no batteries for electric vehicles (Photo: ShutterStock)

Lithium for battery, copper for the mains

Why are we so dependent on these materials in the fight against climate change? If we take an average electric car for example, then to produce it requires six times more minerals than a regular car, according to the new report: lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese and graphite are necessary for the production of batteries; Power grids need huge amounts of copper and aluminum, and rare elements are used in the magnets needed to make wind turbines work.



Meeting the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, which include limiting global warming to an average of 2 degrees Celsius, will require a significant increase in the volume of energy production from renewable sources. The new report estimates, for example, that in order to do so, it will be necessary to install three times as many wind turbines each year by 2040 from the current rate of installation. By this time, sales of electric cars should also increase 25 times. More, of course, when the production of critical minerals used in renewable energy technologies can grow by almost 500 percent by 2050, according to the World Bank.



"The data show a discrepancy that has arisen between the growing global aspirations for climate change and the availability of critical minerals essential to the realization of these aspirations," said Dr. Fatih Birol, senior director of the IEA. The way they plan to turn their climate promises into action.

If they act now and work together, they can significantly reduce the risks of price volatility and supply disruptions. "

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Take responsibility and lead

The IEA report provides six key policy makers' recommendations to encourage a stable supply of critical minerals to support the accelerated transition to renewable energy. These include the need for governments to publish their concrete commitments to reduce long-term emissions, a step that will provide the confidence needed to invest and expand suppliers. manufacture of minerals. governments should also promote technological progress, increase the recycling of metals to reduce the demand for their main supply addictive maintain higher standards of responsible investments (ESG) and to strengthen international cooperation between producers and consumers.



"the data regarding The shortage of metals is indeed worrying, "says Dr. Daniel Madar, a researcher and scientific consultant in the fields of science application in government." This is a problem and needs to be addressed. Unlike oil and coal, metals are recyclable. States should provide incentives to develop technologies to improve utilization while mining,To optimize when they are produced and to maximize their recycling capacity. "



Madar noted several actions in this area, such as the activities of the American company EnergyX, which developed nanotechnology that may produce up to 3 times more lithium from the raw material and with 20 times less water, compared to the current method for producing lithium; China's decision to recycle about 100,000 tons of batteries during 2021; And the transition to the use of a flow battery, which uses electrochemical energy, which is stored in chemicals in a liquid and converted into electrical energy (and which is based on metals that are cheaper to mine such as bromine and zinc).



"Countries have to decide whether to leave the scarcity of the free market and then things happen lazily, or whether they take responsibility and lead, by providing incentives, investing in R&D and creating beneficial regulation," says Madar. In the first decade of the current century and subsidizing them to this day, the Chinese joined with the production of panels and the construction of mass facilities, and served as a catalyst for the process. " The natural gas in Israel, the state has not hesitated to pour billions on the field 'so as not to miss the opportunity for revenue from the resource and so-called in the name of energy resilience'. If this money had been directed to renewable energies and energy storage already in 2015 or even in 2010, it could already be in the middle of the transition to the use of renewable energies,With a significant amount of energy storage and with a decentralized energy sector with energy resilience tens of times greater than that of a fossil fuel-based energy sector. "Israel could have led in R&D renewable energies and energy storage, but instead we are investing most of our money in natural gas, which is already more expensive than solar electricity combined with storage."

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Source: walla

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