Tag Archives: rare earth

Book review of 2024 Scheyder “The War Below”

Posted on July 9, 2025 by energyskeptic

Preface. This post has excerpts from Scheyder’s 2024 “The War Below” about the metals and minerals renewables will need – over 6 times more than fossil fueled internal combustion vehicles, natural gas and coal plants, and nuclear power (IEA 2021). … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy Books, Mining | Tagged antimony, cobalt, copper, lithium, mining, rare earth, tailings dams | 1 Comment

Rare Earth updates: recent research on why complex & intelligent life are rare in the Universe

Posted on March 15, 2024 by energyskeptic

Preface. These are updates to Ward & Brownlee’s book “Rare Earth: Why Complex life is Uncommon in the Universe”. If we are one of the few planets with intelligent life, what a shame it would be if we destroyed ourselves … Continue reading →

Posted in Evolution, Human Nature, Planetary Boundaries, Wood | Tagged combustion, complex life, evolution, fermi paradox, intelligent life, photosynthesis, rare earth, Theia, venus, water | 1 Comment

Coal Ash is a major toxic waste

Posted on April 3, 2022 by energyskeptic

Coal ash is what remains after coal is burned, and has numerous elements dangerous to human health, including known carcinogens such as arsenic, hexavalent chromium, and radium. A nuclear power plant generating as much energy as a coal plant generates … Continue reading →

Posted in Hazardous Waste | Tagged arsenic, coal ash, radioactive, rare earth | Comments Off

Not enough rare metals to scale up solar power

Posted on February 21, 2021 by energyskeptic

Preface. Sunshine may be free, but the materials to make solar contraptions sure aren’t. Since sunshine arrives in a diluted form, vast expanses of solar photovoltaic panels will be needed to produce the world’s 24,000 Terawatt hours of electrical … Continue reading →

Posted in Photovoltaic Solar | Tagged gallium, indium, photovoltaic, PV, rare earth, Ruthenium, solar, tellurium | 5 Comments

What are rare earth metals and how are they used?

Posted on February 15, 2021 by energyskeptic

Preface. After oil, the main feature of new products will be drastic simplification. The re-use of existing stuff. Lack of precision machine tools as they rust away. Back to basics: wood, iron, and clay. Yet every high-tech object depends on … Continue reading →

Posted in Metals | Tagged gallium, indium, mining, rare earth, solar | Comments Off

Autos need finite rare earth, critical, & precious metals

Posted on February 3, 2021 by energyskeptic

An electric car uses five times as many minerals as a conventional car (IEA 2020): IEA, Minerals used in selected power generation technologies, IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/minerals-used-in-selected-power-generation-technologies There are 17 rare earth elements (REE) that China controls up to 97% of … Continue reading →

Posted in Automobiles, Metals | Tagged Cerium, china, dysprosium, Europium, lanthanum, neodymium, Praseodymium, rare earth, terbium, Yttrium | 1 Comment

Renewables: not enough minerals, energy or time and mining is destructive

Posted on January 22, 2021 by energyskeptic

Preface. Electricity generating contraptions like wind and solar can’t replace the 50% of oil used in global manufacturing, because they can’t generate the high heat needed, or run battery or catenary electric trucks as I explained in “When Trucks Top … Continue reading →

Posted in Mining | Tagged battery, limits to growth, lithium, metal, mineral, mining, rare earth, utility scale | 5 Comments

Minerals essential for wind, solar, and high-tech, are anything but clean and green

Posted on January 16, 2021 by energyskeptic

This is a book review of Pitron’s “The rare metals war”. To produce the metals and minerals to make a transition to wind, solar, nuclear and so on would be incredibly destructive and polluting. A fifth of China’s arable land … Continue reading →

Posted in Mining | Tagged metal, mineral depletion, rare earth, solar, wind | 1 Comment

High-Tech can’t last: limited essential elements with limited lifespans

Posted on June 8, 2019 by energyskeptic

There are 17 rare earth elements in the periodic table. About nine of those elements go into every iPhone sold… and if China were suddenly to disappear from a map tomorrow, Apple would lose about 90% of those elements. Source: … Continue reading →

Posted in Metals, Microchips and computers | Tagged cascading failure, critical element, mineral, peak, rare earth, supply chain | 3 Comments

Rare Earth: Why complex life is uncommon in the universe

Posted on June 2, 2019 by energyskeptic

Preface. So much research on why complex life is rare in the universe has come out since this book I’ve created another post: Rare Earth updates: recent research on why intelligent life is probably rare in the Universe. And intelligent … Continue reading →

Posted in An Index of Best Energyskeptic Posts, Biodiversity, Evolution, Human Nature, Life Before Oil | Tagged brownlee, evolution, fermi paradox, intelligent life, rare earth, rare earth hypothesis, ward, why complex life uncommon | 11 Comments