Addressing the terawatt challenge: scalability in the supply of chemical elements for renewable energy
Abstrak
The energy infrastructure for fossil fuels is well-established, accounting for approximately 87% of the 16 TW of power consumed globally. For renewable and sustainable energy conversion technologies to play a relevant role at the terrestrial scale, they must be able to scale to the TW level of deployment. This would place a significant demand on the current and future supply of raw materials (chemical elements) used by those technologies. Oftentimes, the average crustal abundance of a chemical element is cited as a measure of its scalability, however another important metric for scalability is the existence (of lack thereof) of mineable ores with a high concentration of the targeted element. This paper aims to provide an overview of the availability of all elements. This is accomplished via a compilation of data for global primary production rates for each element, as a measure of availability at the present time. This work also addresses the potential future availability based on current and possible future primary sources.
Topik & Kata Kunci
Penulis (2)
P. Vesborg
T. Jaramillo
Akses Cepat
- Tahun Terbit
- 2012
- Bahasa
- en
- Total Sitasi
- 711×
- Sumber Database
- Semantic Scholar
- DOI
- 10.1039/C2RA20839C
- Akses
- Open Access ✓