Can Deep-Sea Mining Provide Precious Metals for Renewables?
Potato-shaped clumps of precious metal litter the deep-sea floor. Could this be the answer to Renewables expansion? Or would the damage to the sea be too great?
Solar photovoltaic (PV) plants, wind farms, and electric vehicles (EVs) are promising alternatives to fossil fuel-based counterparts. Countries worldwide have pledged to increase the proportion of renewable energy in their national electricity mix.
Driving across rural areas, you see solar farms and wind turbines proudly erected by the roads. However, did you know how hungry these clean infrastructures are for minerals?
This graph illustrates how mineral-intensive clean technologies are compared to traditional fossil fuel infrastructures. Offshore wind farms require almost 15 times more precious metals than a natural gas plant.
A report by the European Commission predicted that “in the high demand scenario an increase in demand is expected for all materials, for example a 4-fold increase for silver and up to a 12-fold increase for silicon…
