IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jcltec/v1y2019i1p12-184d253912.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Critical Material Applications and Intensities in Clean Energy Technologies

Author

Listed:
  • Alexandra Leader

    (Golisano Institute for Sustainability, Rochester Institute of Technology, 1 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623, USA)

  • Gabrielle Gaustad

    (Inamori School of Engineering, Alfred University, 1 Saxon Drive, Alfred, NY 14802, USA)

Abstract

Clean energy technologies have been developed to address the pressing global issue of climate change; however, the functionality of many of these technologies relies on materials that are considered critical. Critical materials are those that have potential vulnerability to supply disruption. In this paper, critical material intensity data from academic articles, government reports, and industry publications are aggregated and presented in a variety of functional units, which vary based on the application of each technology. The clean energy production technologies of gas turbines, direct drive wind turbines, and three types of solar photovoltaics (silicon, CdTe, and CIGS); the low emission mobility technologies of proton exchange membrane fuel cells, permanent-magnet-containing motors, and both nickel metal hydride and Li-ion batteries; and, the energy-efficient lighting devices (CFL, LFL, and LED bulbs) are analyzed. To further explore the role of critical materials in addressing climate change, emissions savings units are also provided to illustrate the potential for greenhouse gas emission reductions per mass of critical material in each of the clean energy production technologies. Results show the comparisons of material use in clean energy technologies under various performance, economic, and environmental based units.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexandra Leader & Gabrielle Gaustad, 2019. "Critical Material Applications and Intensities in Clean Energy Technologies," Clean Technol., MDPI, vol. 1(1), pages 1-21, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jcltec:v:1:y:2019:i:1:p:12-184:d:253912
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8797/1/1/12/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8797/1/1/12/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Moss, R.L. & Tzimas, E. & Kara, H. & Willis, P. & Kooroshy, J., 2013. "The potential risks from metals bottlenecks to the deployment of Strategic Energy Technologies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 556-564.
    2. Diouf, Boucar & Pode, Ramchandra, 2015. "Potential of lithium-ion batteries in renewable energy," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 375-380.
    3. Bustamante, Michele L. & Gaustad, Gabrielle, 2014. "Challenges in assessment of clean energy supply-chains based on byproduct minerals: A case study of tellurium use in thin film photovoltaics," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 397-414.
    4. Machacek, Erika & Richter, Jessika Luth & Habib, Komal & Klossek, Polina, 2015. "Recycling of rare earths from fluorescent lamps: Value analysis of closing-the-loop under demand and supply uncertainties," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 104(PA), pages 76-93.
    5. Jacobson, Mark Z. & Delucchi, Mark A., 2011. "Providing all global energy with wind, water, and solar power, Part I: Technologies, energy resources, quantities and areas of infrastructure, and materials," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1154-1169, March.
    6. Grandell, Leena & Lehtilä, Antti & Kivinen, Mari & Koljonen, Tiina & Kihlman, Susanna & Lauri, Laura S., 2016. "Role of critical metals in the future markets of clean energy technologies," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 53-62.
    7. Helbig, Christoph & Bradshaw, Alex M. & Kolotzek, Christoph & Thorenz, Andrea & Tuma, Axel, 2016. "Supply risks associated with CdTe and CIGS thin-film photovoltaics," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 422-433.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ewa Lewicka & Katarzyna Guzik & Krzysztof Galos, 2021. "On the Possibilities of Critical Raw Materials Production from the EU’s Primary Sources," Resources, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-21, May.
    2. Thibault Rafaïdeen & Neha Neha & Bitty Roméo Serge Kouamé & Stève Baranton & Christophe Coutanceau, 2020. "Electroreforming of Glucose and Xylose in Alkaline Medium at Carbon Supported Alloyed Pd3Au7 Nanocatalysts: Effect of Aldose Concentration and Electrolysis Cell Voltage," Clean Technol., MDPI, vol. 2(2), pages 1-20, June.
    3. Jay N. Meegoda & Daniel Watts & Hsin-Neng Hsieh & Bruno Bezerra de Souza, 2021. "Community Based Pollution Prevention for Two Urban Cities—A Case Study," Clean Technol., MDPI, vol. 3(1), pages 1-20, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kim Maya Yavor & Vanessa Bach & Matthias Finkbeiner, 2021. "Resource Assessment of Renewable Energy Systems—A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-19, May.
    2. Tokimatsu, Koji & Wachtmeister, Henrik & McLellan, Benjamin & Davidsson, Simon & Murakami, Shinsuke & Höök, Mikael & Yasuoka, Rieko & Nishio, Masahiro, 2017. "Energy modeling approach to the global energy-mineral nexus: A first look at metal requirements and the 2°C target," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 207(C), pages 494-509.
    3. Hu, Xueyue & Wang, Chunying & Elshkaki, Ayman, 2024. "Material-energy Nexus: A systematic literature review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    4. Song, Huiling & Wang, Chang & Sun, Kun & Geng, Hongjun & Zuo, Lyushui, 2023. "Material efficiency strategies across the industrial chain to secure indium availability for global carbon neutrality," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PB).
    5. Zheng, Biao & Zhang, Yuquan & Chen, Yufeng, 2021. "Asymmetric connectedness and dynamic spillovers between renewable energy and rare earth markets in China: Evidence from firms’ high-frequency data," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    6. Liang, Yanan & Kleijn, René & Tukker, Arnold & van der Voet, Ester, 2022. "Material requirements for low-carbon energy technologies: A quantitative review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    7. Le Boulzec, Hugo & Delannoy, Louis & Andrieu, Baptiste & Verzier, François & Vidal, Olivier & Mathy, Sandrine, 2022. "Dynamic modeling of global fossil fuel infrastructure and materials needs: Overcoming a lack of available data," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 326(C).
    8. Weiser, Annika & Bickel, Manuel W. & Kümmerer, Klaus & Lang, Daniel J., 2020. "Towards a more sustainable metal use – Lessons learned from national strategy documents," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    9. Elshkaki, Ayman & Graedel, T.E., 2015. "Solar cell metals and their hosts: A tale of oversupply and undersupply," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 167-177.
    10. Guo, Jianxin & Zhu, Kaiwei & Cheng, Yonglong, 2024. "Deployment of clean energy technologies towards carbon neutrality under resource constraints," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 295(C).
    11. Li, George Yunxiong & Ascani, Andrea & Iammarino, Simona, 2024. "The material basis of modern technologies. A case study on rare metals," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(1).
    12. Zhou, Mei-Jing & Huang, Jian-Bai & Chen, Jin-Yu, 2022. "Time and frequency spillovers between political risk and the stock returns of China's rare earths," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    13. Tokimatsu, Koji & Höök, Mikael & McLellan, Benjamin & Wachtmeister, Henrik & Murakami, Shinsuke & Yasuoka, Rieko & Nishio, Masahiro, 2018. "Energy modeling approach to the global energy-mineral nexus: Exploring metal requirements and the well-below 2 °C target with 100 percent renewable energy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 1158-1175.
    14. Matheus L. C. M. Henckens, 2022. "The Energy Transition and Energy Equity: A Compatible Combination?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-22, April.
    15. Benjamin C. McLellan & Eiji Yamasue & Tetsuo Tezuka & Glen Corder & Artem Golev & Damien Giurco, 2016. "Critical Minerals and Energy–Impacts and Limitations of Moving to Unconventional Resources," Resources, MDPI, vol. 5(2), pages 1-40, May.
    16. Nassar, Nedal T. & Wilburn, David R. & Goonan, Thomas G., 2016. "Byproduct metal requirements for U.S. wind and solar photovoltaic electricity generation up to the year 2040 under various Clean Power Plan scenarios," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 1209-1226.
    17. Naeem, Muhammad Abubakr & Gul, Raazia & Farid, Saqib & Karim, Sitara & Lucey, Brian M., 2023. "Assessing linkages between alternative energy markets and cryptocurrencies," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 513-529.
    18. Chen, Jinyu & Luo, Qian & Tu, Yan & Ren, Xiaohang & Naderi, Niki, 2023. "Renewable energy transition and metal consumption: Dynamic evolution analysis based on transnational data," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PB).
    19. Gustafsson, Robert & Dutta, Anupam & Bouri, Elie, 2022. "Are energy metals hedges or safe havens for clean energy stock returns?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 244(PA).
    20. Valero, Alicia & Valero, Antonio & Calvo, Guiomar & Ortego, Abel, 2018. "Material bottlenecks in the future development of green technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 178-200.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jcltec:v:1:y:2019:i:1:p:12-184:d:253912. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.