Rare Earth Used In Solar Panels

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Rare earth used in solar panels.

Neodymium is used in wind turbines and hybrid cars. High performance batteries need lithium which is only easily extracted from briny pools in the andes. 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. Currently marketed photovoltaic solar technologies do not use rare earths.

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

Terbium and europium are used in thin film solar panels while dysprosium is used to manufacture batteries in most hybrid gas electric vehicles. And despite their name they aren t actually that rare at all.