Rare Earth Used In Solar Panels

In 2011 the average price of rare earth metals shot up by as much as 750 percent.

Rare earth used in solar panels.

However recent research coming out of the netherlands has spotted a red flag to relying on solar panels as a panacea for global emissions problems. Neodymium is used in wind turbines and hybrid cars. Experts have found that the rare metals required to build solar panels such as indium and tellurium are not in sufficient supply to keep up with demand. And despite their name they aren t actually that rare at all.

A new report by the french environment and energy management agency ademe shows that rare earth minerals are not widely used in solar energy and battery storage technologies. 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 new report by the french environment and energy management agency ademe shows that rare earth minerals are not widely used in solar energy and battery storage technologies. 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 hindera 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. Currently marketed photovoltaic solar technologies do not use rare earths.