To meet global climate targets, renewable energy sources such as solar and wind will need to be deployed at scale. This will mean large-scale mining and processing of critical minerals such as cobalt, lithium, and rare earth elements, which form key components of the solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicles required for the energy transition.
To understand the role of critical minerals in energy transition, including whether the world has enough of these minerals, we spoke to Dr. Seaver Wang, Co-Director of the Climate and Energy team at the United States-based Breakthrough Institute. Dr. Wang writes on critical minerals and recently published a paper titled “Future demand for electricity generation materials under different climate mitigation scenarios,” which unpacks the feasibility of using critical minerals at scale to meet climate goals.
Full transcript of the episode is available here
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