Solar Panels Made Without Rare Earth Metals

The current global supply of several critical metals is insufficient to transition to a renewable energy system.

Solar panels made without rare earth metals.

An overview of the challenges to maintaining a sustainable supply of critical materials ranging from rare earth elements to more abundant metals like copper. By depleting earth of its resources solar energy is not sustainable as the components required are limited. Rare earth metals hard to find materials with unfamiliar names such as lanthanum neodymium and europium are used in wind and solar energy projects but dwindling supplies could hinder a roll out of low carbon technologies and slow china s shift away from coal power. High performance batteries need lithium which is only easily extracted from briny pools in the andes.

Mining for rare metals is considered to be one of china s most polluting industries presenting potential disasters relating to contamination that threaten to cause a wide scale catastrophe. Mono vs poly vs thin film. But it also means more demand for the materials that make those technologies possible. Thin film pv technologies for example contain potentially critical metals such as tellurium.

However a lack of rare earths does not mean that the components of solar modules are harmless. Solar photovoltaics are made with a number of parts the most important of which are silicon cells silicon atomic number 14 on the periodic table is a nonmetal with conductive properties that give it the ability to convert sunlight into electricity. In 2011 the average price of rare earth metals shot up by as much as 750 percent. Calculations for the netherlands show that production of wind turbines and photovoltaic pv solar panels already requires a significant share of the annual global production of some critical metals looking at the global scale scenarios in line with the goals of the paris.

Thin cheap solar panels need tellurium which makes up a scant 0 0000001 percent of the earth s crust making it three times rarer than gold. A group of researchers from the dutch ministry of infrastructure determined how many of these important metals will be required by 2050 in order to make enough solar panels and wind turbines to. How are solar panels made. These compounds which are highly toxic when mined and processed also take a heavy environmental toll on soil and water.

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