A follow-up study to the one conducted in 2010/11 on "Critical Metals in Strategic Energy Technologies" has been recently published as a JRC Scientific and Policy Report, entitled "Critical Metals in the Path towards the Decarbonisation of the EU Energy Sector"
This new study builds on the first study conducted by the JRC in 2011 (Critical Metals in Strategic Energy Technologies), where critical metals were identified, which could become a bottleneck to the supply-chain of the low-carbon energy technologies addressed by the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan), namely: wind, solar (both PV and CSP), CCS, nuclear fission, bioenergy and the electricity grid. Fourteen metals were identified to be a cause for concern. After taking into account market and geopolitical parameters, five metals were labelled ‘critical’, namely: tellurium, indium, gallium, neodymium and dysprosium. The potential supply chain constraints for these materials were most applicable to the deployment of wind and PV energy technologies.
In this follow-up study, other energy and low-carbon technologies are investigated that not only play an important role in the EU's path towards decarbonisation but also may compete for the same metals as identified in the six SET-Plan technologies. Eleven additional technologies are analysed including fuel cells, electricity storage, electric vehicles and lighting. Where possible, the study models the implications for materials demand as a result of the scenarios described in the EU Energy Roadmap 2050. Consequently, the results obtained in the first study are updated to reflect the data that has become available in the roadmap.
This second study found that eight metals have a high criticality rating and are therefore classified as ‘critical’. These are the six rare earth elements (dysprosium, europium, terbium, yttrium, praseodymium and neodymium), and the two metals gallium and tellurium. Four metals (graphite, rhenium, indium and platinum) are found to have a medium-to-high rating and are classified as 'near critical', suggesting that the market conditions for these metals should be monitored in case the markets for these metals deteriorate thereby increasing the risk of supply chain bottlenecks. The applications, i.e. technologies, of particular concern are electric vehicles, wind and solar energy, and lighting. As in the first report, ways of mitigating the supply-chain risks for the critical metals are considered. These fall into three categories: increasing primary supply, reuse/recycling and substitution.
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