Solar Panels Made Without Rare Earth Metals

High performance batteries need lithium which is only easily extracted from briny pools in the andes.

Solar panels made without rare earth metals.

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. Besides rare earth metals are neither rare nor earths and permanent magnets can be made without using rare earths. These compounds which are highly toxic when mined and processed also take a heavy environmental toll on soil and water. In 2011 the average price of rare earth metals shot up by as much as 750 percent.

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. While a handful of thin film solar panels use silicon in their absorption layers many make use of other metals such as cadmium telluride and copper indium gallium diselinide commonly referred. Renewable energy like solar and wind power can be made from free abundant. But it also means more demand for the materials that make those technologies possible.

Revision of solar panel production process. More clean energy means more solar panels wind turbines electric vehicles and large scale batteries. However a lack of rare earths does not mean that the components of solar modules are harmless. These substances not only are scarce but are supplied largely by foreign countries with china mining more than 90 percent of the rare earths needed for batteries in hybrid cars magnets electronics and other high tech products.

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. 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.