Aramendia, E. orcid.org/0000-0002-5964-6776, Brockway, P.E. orcid.org/0000-0001-6925-8040, Taylor, P.G. orcid.org/0000-0001-7456-3744 et al. (1 more author) (2024) Exploring the effects of mineral depletion on renewable energy technologies net energy returns. Energy, 290. 130112. ISSN 0360-5442
Abstract
The energy transition poses a set of new challenges related to mineral scarcity and depletion. The process of mineral depletion is notably characterised by increasing energy consumption per tonne of valuable minerals mined (i.e. energy intensity of mining), due to the decline in the quality of mined deposits. As renewable energy technologies are heavily reliant on a range of minerals, some of them scarce, the net energy returns (i.e., the share of energy available to provide energy services) of renewable energy technologies may be significantly affected by this decline.the increases in the energy intensities of mining therefore raise the question of how the future net energy returns of renewable energy technologies may be affected. This may in turn jeopardize the ability of renewable energy technologies to provide sufficient net energy, and hence, support decent living standards. The aim of this article is therefore toIn response, we explore, using net energy analysis techniques combined with Life Cycle Analysis data, the effects of mineral depletion on the net energy returns of four renewable energy technologies: solar photovoltaic, concentrated solar power, onshore wind, and offshore wind.
The results indicate that the effects of mineral depletion on the net energy returns of renewable energy technologies will be marginal. Indeed, even for very high increases in the energy intensities of mining, the share of net energy returns decreases by less than 3 percentage points by 2060 for each technology analysed — 2.3% for wind offshore, 1.6% for solar photovoltaic and concentrated solar power, and 1.1% for wind onshore. These results are validated with a Monte Carlo simulation conducted on the energy intensities of mining. In addition, the article discusses that technological factors, such as improvements in metallurgical energy efficiencies and material intensities of manufacturing have the potential to somewhat offset the effects of mineral depletion. Hence, although constraints related to mineral scarcity and depletion may be critical for the energy transition, concerns regarding the impacts of these issues on the net energy returns of renewable energy appear to be unfounded.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Net energy analysis; Renewable energy; Mineral depletion; Energy return on investment; Material requirements |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 11 Jan 2024 14:25 |
Last Modified: | 18 Feb 2025 13:43 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.energy.2023.130112 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:207462 |