11 Aug
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Aziz
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Important Information About Solar Panels and Wind Turbines
If we want to stop climate change, we must stop emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. To do this, we need to replace all sources of carbon pollution, such as fossil fuel power plants and combustion vehicles, with clean and renewable alternatives. However, there is a problem with this, according to a new study, we may not have enough material to make it happen.
It requires a large number of high-tech products, electronic components and certain rare metals, such as solar panels, rechargeable batteries, and complex circuits. These may include magnetic neodymium, electronic indium, and silver, as well as lesser-known metals such as praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium. These metals are mined in large quantities in countries around the world and enter the supply chains of electronics and renewable energy companies of all kinds.
A group of researchers from the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure has determined how many of these important metals will be needed by 2050 to make enough solar panels and wind turbines to effectively combat climate change. The number of both solar panels and wind turbines is expected to grow rapidly as many countries, states, cities and companies pledge to switch to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050. Demand for some metals, such as neodymium and indium, could increase more than a dozen times by 2050 and there may not be enough supply to fuel the green revolution.
By 2050, solar panels and wind turbines will require about 12 times more indium than the entire world currently produces, the analysis found. Neodymium production will need to increase more than seven times, and silver about three times. But this is not just necessary for renewable energy. All these metals have other uses in other industries. So mining will have to increase very quickly.
This is a serious problem because opening a new mine takes a lot of time and money. Often times, it can take decades for a new mining operation to become operational, which means we may begin to see shortages of many of these important metals.
We should start learning about recycling as a possible solution. Today, many electronic devices cannot be recycled in any way. We need to start recycling more tech components. These transformations could benefit us greatly by 2050.
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