Critical Materials: The Building Blocks of Renewable Energy Technologies

The U.S. White House has set a target to achieve 50% to 52% reduction of greenhouse gas pollution by 2030 relative to 2005 levels. This puts the United States on a path to achieve a 100% clean energy economy with net-zero emissions by 2050. To achieve this target, the U.S. Department of Energy is accelerating efforts to decarbonize our energy, manufacturing, and transportation economics – with renewable energy technologies playing a key role in the transition. In particular, the U.S. has put forward goals to deploy 30 GW of offshore wind power capacity and enable 50% adoption of electric vehicles by 2030. Critical materials are the building blocks of the renewable energy technologies needed to achieve net-zero emissions economy wide in the U.S. by 2050. Such critical materials include, but are not limited to, neodymium – a rare earth element in neodymium-iron-boron magnets that enable high density conversion of energy in permanent magnet machines in electric vehicle and direct drive offshore wind turbine drivetrains – and cobalt – which provides thermal stability in lithium battery cathodes for electric vehicle and stationary energy storage. According to the International Energy Agency, the demand for these critical materials is expected to rise by at least four times by 2040 to meet global climate goals. This talk will examine the role critical materials play in renewable energy technologies, the supply chains challenges being faced, and the role research is playing to address these challenges in the near- and long-term time horizons.