Moving from natural gas, fossil fuels to renewable energy grows need for minerals, metals
The world's transition away from fossil fuels toward clean energy is increasing demand for certain minerals, rare earth metals and the expertise of a scientific discipline that has been dwindling for decades.
Renewable energy systems are more material-intensive than those powered by fossil fuels. Minerals like lithium and nickel are needed for better batteries; rare earth metals for wind turbines and electric motors; and vast amounts of copper and aluminum to further electrify the power grid.
The increase in demand is also spurring the need for geologists skilled in finding ore deposits and assessing the potential for drilling -- a subfield of geology that has nearly disappeared from American university geology programs.
'If you don't grow it, you mine it'
Although we usually don't think about the materials that make up the built environment, minerals power every aspect of our lives, explained Barbara Dutrow, a geology professor at Louisiana State University and former president of the Geological Society of America.
“An old saying is, ‘If you don't grow it, you mine it.’ Our lifestyles depend on materials from the earth,” Dutrow said.
The emerging renewable energy sector will be material-intensive instead of fuel-intensive like traditional forms of energy.
A typical electric car requires six times the mineral resources of a conventional car while an onshore wind plant requires nine times more than a gas-fired power plant, according to the International Energy Agency.
Since 2010, the average amount of minerals needed for a new unit of power generation capacity has increased by 50% as renewables replaced traditional sources of energy.
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The IEA projects that by 2040, mineral demand from clean energy technologies will double or even quadruple in some scenarios.
The study of minerals has been increasingly left out of the earth science curriculum, particularly in the U.S., either disappearing altogether or being grouped in with other subjects.
Geology programs focused on training geologists to locate ore deposits, identify materials and assess the potential for drilling in different locations has been fading.
LSU’s vice president for research and economic development, Samuel Bentley, said he wants to see the university return to these programs, sometimes referred to as “economic geology.”
“For a number of reasons, many universities in the U.S. let programs like that phase out,” Bentley said. “Well, now that's reversing because the demand for raw materials and for innovation using the raw materials to build and electrify the economy, to electrify transportation, are huge.”
A few universities, like Iowa State University, the University of Arizona, and the University of Michigan maintained their programs, but a slump in the metals market made the field nearly obsolete by the late 1990s.
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“I would expect that Louisiana will be getting more into our academic programs – we’ll be focusing more over upcoming years on returning to applied economic geoscience in order to help with energy transition,” Bentley said. “That's the direction I want us to go in. And I think that's the direction a lot of universities are already moving.”
Geopolitical concerns
Concerns over energy security have traditionally been centered around countries having a steady supply of fuel – oil and gas. Europe’s current energy crisis, for example, was spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which caused disruptions to natural gas supply.
But replacing fossil fuels with clean energy won’t erase geopolitical concerns over resources. Though renewable energy isn’t fuel intensive, it is material intensive, and the minerals needed for the energy transition are not distributed evenly across the globe.
China, for example, made up over 60% of rare earth metal production in 2019, and has a significant amount of nearly every other necessary ore needed for the transition.
The raw materials needed for the energy transition are more geographically concentrated than oil and gas. Additionally, China has a heavy presence in the infrastructure needed to process the raw materials.
China’s share of refining is around 35% for nickel, 50-70% for lithium and cobalt, and as high as 90% for rare earth metal processing that converts ores into oxides, metals and magnets, according to the IEA.
“Developing a U.S. infrastructure for identifying new resources for critical minerals and materials is once again important,” Dutrow said.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Energy transition pushing demand for minerals and trained geologists
