The Material Basis of Energy Transitions

Alena Bleicher, Alexandra Pehlken

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9780128235546
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Power Resources
• Index: Technology & Engineering

The Material Basis of Energy Transitions explores the intersection between critical raw material provision and the energy system. Chapters draw on examples and case studies involving energy technologies (e.g., electric power, transport) and raw material provision (e.g., mining, recycling), and consider these in their regional and global contexts. The book critically discusses issues such as the notion of criticality in the context of a circular economy, approaches for estimating the need for raw materials, certification schemes for raw materials, the role of consumers, and the impact of renewable energy development on resource conflicts.

Each chapter deals with a specific issue that characterizes the interdependency between critical raw materials and renewable energies by examining case studies from a particular conceptual perspective. The book is a resource for students and researchers from the social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering, as well as interdisciplinary scholars interested in the field of renewable energies, the circular economy, recycling, transport, and mining. The book is also of interest to policymakers in the fields of renewable energy, recycling, and mining, professionals from the energy and resource industries, as well as energy experts and consultants looking for an interdisciplinary assessment of critical materials.

• Provides a comprehensive overview of key issues related to the nexus between renewable energy and critical raw materials
• Explores interdisciplinary perspectives from the natural sciences, engineering, and social sciences
• Discusses critical strategies to address the nexus from a practitioner's perspective

Chapter 1: The material basis of energy transitions—An introduction

Alena Bleicher^a; Alexandra Pehlken^{b a} Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research—UFZ, Leipzig, Germany
^b OFFIS—Institute for Information Technology, Oldenburg, Germany

Abstract

The material basis and interdependencies of renewable energy systems have not yet been widely studied and analyzed. This book aims to bridge this gap by bringing together contributions from authors with a variety of different scientific backgrounds, who shed light on the issue from their specific discipline. In this chapter, we provide some background information about this topic, and outline the main issues that are addressed by the authors within this book: assessments of resource availability in renewable energy scenarios, the usability of methods such as life-cycle assessments, the notion of criticality and its shortcomings, the challenges related to mining the resources that are required to manufacture renewable energy technologies, the impact of political strategies, the opportunities and challenges of recycling and substitution, and the role of consumers.

Keywords

Resource-renewable energy nexus; Criticality; Life-cycle assessment; Consumption; Resource conflicts; Valuation

This book investigates the interdependencies of renewable energy systems and their material basis during the various life-cycle phases of the energy technologies involved, with a focus on scarce and critical raw materials. Specific raw materials such as neodymium, lithium, and cobalt are required to produce renewable energy systems, most notably energy technologies such as wind turbines, photovoltaic cells, and batteries. Raw materials are extracted from geological repositories or become available in the market through recycling in the end-of-life phase of objects and technologies. Thus, renewable energy systems depend on either mining operations or recycling efforts, with the systems themselves becoming “urban mines” when energy infrastructures are decommissioned.

The idea for this book emerged during a conference where we, the editors of this book, Alexandra Pehlken and Alena Bleicher, met as leaders of research groups funded by the FONA research program (Research for Sustainable Development), which was initiated by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Although we have different disciplinary backgrounds—engineering and social science—we share an interest in the provision of raw materials for advanced technological applications. The research group Cascade Use, led by Alexandra Pehlken, conducted research from an engineering perspective on issues such as the cascading use of materials, using case studies in the automotive and renewable energy sectors. The cascading use of raw materials was assessed across more than one life cycle, e.g., a lithium ion battery intended for use in cars that is reused for the stationary storage of energy within the grid. At its end-of-life phase, the battery will be recycled and its raw materials will enter the raw material market. The research group GORmin, led by Alena Bleicher, aimed to explain how the development of new technologies for exploiting, extracting, and processing resources from geological or anthropogenic repositories is shaped by societal factors, such as the practices and daily decision-making routines in environmental administration and research projects, as well as conflict dynamics, and regional mining histories and narratives. The concept of socio-technical systems underlies this research. This concept views technical and social systems as interrelated—it proposes that technology shapes society and vice versa.

During our research, we realized that studies related to the so-called “critical raw materials” are often legitimized by references to renewable energy technologies (see, e.g., Sovacool et al., 2020). However, a closer look revealed that the interrelation between these two fields is often ignored, and has not been systematically or comprehensively considered in scientific research. Within the last decade, research has been carried out by scientists with diverse scientific backgrounds (e.g., geology, engineering, industrial ecology, geography, sociology, anthropology) on issues related to either renewable energy systems and technologies or mining and the processing of (specific) minerals. Many books and scientific papers have shed light on the methods, challenges, and impacts of energy transitions on societies (e.g., Chen, Xue, Cai, Thomas, & Stückrad, 2019; Cheung, Davies, & Bassen, 2019; Dietzenbacher, Kulionis, & Capurro, 2020; Viebahn et al., 2015). A broad range of issues related to renewable energy systems have been discussed: secure and stable energy provision (e.g., Sinsel, Riemke, & Hoffmann, 2020), political strategies to support renewables (e.g., market incentives, regulations) (e.g., Overland, 2019; Verbong & Loorbach, 2012), the impact of energy transformation on social justice (e.g., Simcock, Thomson, Petrova, & Bouzarovski, 2017), the energy-food nexus in the context of bioenergy (e.g., Levidow, 2013; Wu et al., 2018), perceptions of and conflicts related to renewable energy technologies (e.g., Benighaus & Bleicher, 2019; Rule, 2014; Truelove, 2012), and the challenges of managing (smart) grids (e.g., Hossain et al., 2016; Smale, van Vliet, & Spaargaren, 2017).

The issue of nonenergetic raw material provision is almost exclusively debated in the fields of raw materials—resource policy, industry, and science. Recently, working papers and journal articles have discussed the issue of secure supply chains for specific raw materials that are used to produce advanced technology (e.g., Blagoeva, Aves Dias, Marmier, & Pavel, 2016; Langkau & Tercero Espinoza, 2018; Løvik, Hagelüken, & Wäger, 2018), as well as problems related to mining such as conflicts over resources (e.g., Kojola, 2018; Martinez-Alier, 2009), environmental, health and security issues in small-scale artisanal mining (e.g., Jacka, 2018; Smith, 2019), and the potential and limits of management instruments in mining (e.g., Owen & Kemp, 2013; Phadke, 2018).

In order to address the challenges related to the energy transition and its material basis, a broader perspective must be taken. First, it is necessary to consider the interdependencies of renewable energy systems, their future development, technology paths, resource extraction, and resource provision. Second, these relationships have to be explored from different disciplinary angles in order to identify potentially problematic aspects. Thus, questions of global justice, responsible mining and consumption, and the effects of price volatility need to be considered together with energy and climate policies, scenarios for future development, technological questions about innovative technologies in different fields of energy use and provision (electricity, heat, traffic), alternative resources (e.g., recycling potentials), as well as investment strategies developed by industry and policymakers to address the challenges.

This book aims to provide a comprehensive interdisciplinary overview of issues related to decentralized renewable energy systems and their mineral basis, and to gather together previously unrelated perspectives from natural sciences, engineering, and social sciences. By doing so, the book serves those who are interested in a raw material demand perspective on the energy transition and renewable energy. Our readers will likely be scientists from diverse disciplines and professionals in different fields of work, such as business and industry, finance, and public policy. The book is suitable for people with no prior knowledge of these issues, such as undergraduate and graduate students, as well as experts in related fields, who will find valuable reflections and inspiration for future research.

In this book, we have assembled contributions from authors who have already researched the relationship between renewable energy technologies, energy systems, and the material basis, or who have research experience in one of these areas and were willing to take on a dual perspective for this book. The authors discuss a range of issues. We have briefly summarized them here to give readers some guidance about the structure and content of the book.

Several authors aim to more precisely characterize the scale of the problem and the dynamics of the issue by describing the type and amount of minerals needed for energy systems. By taking a historical perspective, Peng Wang and his colleagues (Chapter 3) show how the global energy system’s demand for and consumption of materials has increased and diversified within the last few decades. Wang et al., Zepf (Chapter 4), and Goddin (Chapter 13) explain that one reason for this diversification is that the materials in question provide specific technological services. For instance, elements such as gallium, germanium, and indium are used in thin film photovoltaics, as they have a high absorption coefficient and are extremely effective at absorbing sunlight. Rare-earth elements such as neodymium and rhenium are used in permanent magnets, as they have a high curie temperature (the temperature at which magnetization is lost), and are resistant to corrosion.

Wang et al. (Chapter 3), Zepf (Chapter 4), and Weil et al. (Chapter 5) all start by specifying the materials required for energy technologies. These include generation technologies such as wind and solar systems, as well as storage technologies such as batteries. Using different approaches (e.g., material flow analyses, scenario analyses), these authors then determine the amount of materials needed for an energy system based on renewable energy. Peng Wang et al. present a mineral-energy nexus framework to assess material demand, and the flow and stocks along the material cycle. They categorize energy technologies into wind- or motor-related technology, photovoltaic-related technology, battery technology, and vehicle-related technology, and use these categories as entry points for their discussion of the challenges posed by the system of international trade, and environmental issues related to the provision of relevant materials. Based on the state of the art of renewable energy technologies and expectations regarding their future development, Volker Zepf provides an overview of the amount of resources needed for the production of energy from biomass, hydro, solar, wind, and geothermal resources. He concludes that some wind and solar technologies will require high amounts of “critical materials.” In addition, Marcel Weil and his colleagues discuss the resources required for stationary battery systems. They consider the material and environmental consequences of a scenario in which the global transition to an electricity system based on 100% renewable energy is achieved by 2050. The authors of these chapters point out the importance of differentiating between the notions of “resources” and “reserves” when estimating the availability of a given mineral. A resource is a concentration of minerals that has likely prospects of economic recovery in the future. Reserves are concentrations of minerals that can be recovered and processed today in a technically and economically feasible way, and which are legally accessible, meaning that someone has legal permission to extract the minerals (BGS, British Geological Survey, 2019).

A central concept regarding the material basis of renewable energy systems is “criticality” or “critical materials.” While the abovementioned authors rely on notions of criticality used by bodies such as the European Union, others critically discuss the concept and its current use, and highlight its shortcomings. From a science and technology studies perspective, Paul Gilbert (Chapter 6) reveals assumptions, resource imaginaries, and measures that are embedded in the concept of criticality, and which are built upon future energy scenarios. Based on his findings, he provides a fundamental critique of these entanglements. Gilbert shows that instruments such as political risk assessments are based on the needs of wealthy resource-importing countries, and tha...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Contributors
• Chapter 1: The material basis of energy transitions—An introduction
• Chapter 2: The repatriation challenge: Critical minerals mining in the United States
• Chapter 3: Metal-energy nexus in the global energy transition calls for cooperative actions
• Chapter 4: The dependency of renewable energy technologies on critical resources
• Chapter 5: Stationary battery systems: Future challenges regarding resources, recycling, and sustainability
• Chapter 6: Making critical materials valuable: Decarbonization, investment, and “political risk”
• Chapter 7: Environmental impacts of mineral sourcing and their impacts on criticality
• Chapter 8: Limits of life cycle assessment in the context of the energy transition and its material basis
• Chapter 9: Critical resources, sustainability, and future generations
• Chapter 10: Conflicts related to resources: The case of cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo
• Chapter 11: Voluntary sustainability initiatives: An approach to make mining more responsible?
• Chapter 12: The role of a circular economy for energy transition
• Chapter 13: Substitution of critical materials, a strategy to deal with the material needs of the energy transition?
• Chapter 14: Renewable energy technologies and their implications for critical materials from a sociology of consumption perspective: The case of photovoltaic systems and electric vehicles
• Chapter 15: Renewable energy and critical minerals: A field worthy of interdisciplinary research
• Author Index
• Subject Index