HWN Suggests

Renewable energy can save the natural world – but if we’re not careful, it will also hurt it

A vast transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy is crucial to slowing climate change. But building solar panels, wind turbines and other renewable energy infrastructure requires mining for materials. If not done responsibly, this may damage species and ecosystems...

We found renewable energy production will exacerbate the threat mining poses to biodiversity – the world’s variety of animals and plants. It’s fair to assume that in some places, the extraction of renewables minerals may cause more damage to nature than the climate change it averts.

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Featured

 Clean Energy's Dirty Little Secret

Hybrid cars and wind turbines need rare-earth minerals that come with their own hefty environmental price tag.

 The Guardian view on rare earths: mining them can’t cost the Earth

It will be no good if in transitioning to climate neutrality, large tracts of the planet are left uninhabitable by the mining of key raw materials

Articles of Interest

It’s not necessary to trash the environment to extract metals needed for renewable energy

If we want to use renewable energy to keep the atmosphere cool, then mining processes and our current relationship with metals must change. Governments should implement policies that encourage those changes. Industry can also contribute by encouraging business partnerships and engagement with communities and other interested parties.

A scramble for the minerals used in renewable energy is under way

America produces few of the commodities it needs.

Apple's Promise to End Rare Earth Mineral Mining Is '100 Percent Unattainable Today'

If attempted in earnest, the world's largest company will surely spur innovation in mining practices and electronics recycling. But Apple has provided no roadmap of how it will begin to recycle many of the dozens of rare earth elements that scientists have thus far deemed impractical to recover.

As Miners Chase Clean-Energy Minerals, Tribes Fear a Repeat of the Past

Mining the minerals that may be needed for a green energy revolution could devastate tribal lands. The Biden administration will be forced to choose.

In the transition to clean energy, critical minerals bring new challenges to energy security

An energy system powered by clean energy technologies differs profoundly from one fuelled by traditional hydrocarbon resources. Solar photovoltaic (PV) plants, wind farms and electric vehicles (EVs) generally require more minerals to build than their fossil fuel-based counterparts. A typical electric car requires six times the mineral inputs of a conventional car and an onshore wind plant requires nine times more mineral resources than a gas-fired plant.

Increasing Export Restrictions on Critical Minerals Threaten Energy Transition, OECD Says

Raw materials such as cobalt and lithium have seen availability drop and prices rise—export restrictions may be playing a role.

Rare-Earth Find in Sweden Lifts Hope for Shift Toward Clean Energy

Mineral deposit could lessen Europe’s reliance on China for vital material in electric cars and wind turbines.

Rethinking Our Risky Reliance on Rare Earth Metals

Our reliance on rare earth minerals, used in everything from smartphones to clean tech, is leaving us exposed to future risks.

Study: Enough rare earth minerals to fuel green energy shift

With a push to get more electricity from solar panels, wind turbines, hydroelectric and nuclear power plants, some people have worried that there won’t be enough key minerals to make the decarbonization switch.

The Lithium Gold Rush: Inside the Race to Power Electric Vehicles

A race is on to produce lithium in the United States, but competing projects are taking very different approaches to extracting the vital raw material. Some might not be very green.

The Strategic Value Of Rare Earths

Rare earths are becoming an increasingly valuable commodity in the tech world. They are essential ingredients in many of the commercial products we use everyday. Cell phones, wind turbines, electric cars: we couldn't make any of these things without rare earths.

The transition to clean energy will mint new commodity superpowers

We look at who wins and loses.

The U.S. Wants a Rare-Earths Supply Chain. Here’s Why It Won’t Come Easily.

New tax credit bill seeks to challenge China’s dominance in the processing of critical minerals.

These spectacular deep-sea creatures live in a potential mining hot spot

The world needs more metals for batteries to fight climate change. Should it come at the cost of these animals?

We Don't Mine Enough Rare Earth Metals to Replace Fossil Fuels With Renewable Energy

Rare earth metals are used in solar panels and wind turbines—as well as electric cars and consumer electronics. We don't recycle them, and there's not enough to meet growing demand.

We've Found a New Source for Rare-Earth Elements We Need for Green Tech

The viability of a renewable energy future relies on the ready supply of REEs, or rare-earth elements. There are 17 REEs in the periodic table and, though the name suggests otherwise, they are actually plentiful in the earth’s crust. The challenge is that these elements are not often concentrated in ore deposits, which makes them expensive and unreliable as an extractable resource for domestic use or export. This in part explains the shortage of these materials being extracted in the United States.