54 ELR 10058 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORTER 12024
THE MINERALS CHALLENGE
FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY
© by Mark Squillace
Mark Squillace is Raphael J. Moses Professor of Natural Resources
Law at the University of Colorado Law School.
SUMMARY
One potential obstacle to a successful energy transition involves the critical minerals used in production of
photovoltaic solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles, and batteries. A substantial portion of these will
have to come from new and expanded mining operations around the world. But mining is controversial, in
part due to the past failures of operators to protect communities and the environment. This Article considers
how nations can responsibly identify, source, and process these minerals, and then deploy them in renew-
able energy products. Its scope is global, but U.S. laws and policies take center stage with a nod to the
broader global aspects involved. These policy issues include the emerging commitment of private companies
to environmental, social, and governance standards, and the federal government’s role in authorizing mining
operations, especially on public lands.
The future of renewable energy, and our capacity to
meet the ambitious goal set by the Paris Agre ement1
of limiting the increase in global average tempera-
tures to 1.5o Celsius (C), depends, to a signicant extent,
on our ability to access certain critical minera ls2 that are
needed to produc e photovoltaic (PV ) solar panel s, wind tur-
bines, electric vehicles (EVs), and batteries for both vehicles
and energy storage. Sourcing these minerals will require
1. See United Nations Climate Change, e Paris Agreement, https://unfccc.
int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement (last visited Nov. 16, 2023).
2. e Energy Act of 2020, §7002(c)(4)(A), dened critical minerals as
those that
(i) are essential to the economic or national security of the
United States;
(ii) the supply chain of which is vulnerable to disruption
(including restrictions associated with foreign political
risk, abrupt demand growth, military conict, violent
unrest, anti-competitive or protectionist behaviors, and
other risks through-out the supply chain); and
(iii) serve an essential function in the manufacturing of a
product (including energy technology-, defense-, curren-
cy-, agriculture-, consumer electronics-, and healthcare-
related applications), the absence of which would have
signicant consequences for the economic or national
security of the United States.
Section 7002(a)(3)(B) further states, however, that “[t]he term ‘critical min-
eral’ does not include—(i) fuel minerals; (ii) water, ice, or snow; (iii) com-
mon varieties of sand, gravel, stone, pumice, cinders, and clay.” e U.S.
Geological Survey (USGS) has used this denition to identify specic min-
erals that should be included on the list. In rules promulgated in 2018,
USGS listed 35 critical minerals. Final List of Critical Minerals 2018, 83
new and expanded mining operations, but recycling can
and should play a prominent role in making some of these
minerals more readily availa ble. Recycling will l ikely prove
less costly and more environmentally friendly, even as it
minimizes t he need for new mining.
Research and technology i nnovations also have a signi-
cant role to play in shifting the renewables industr y away
from scarce and problematic minerals, including cobalt
and nickel. But we will not be able to avoid authorizing
new mining operations, both here in the United States and
in other countries around the world, even as we know that
many of these mines will prove controversial and environ-
mentally da maging.
With that in mind, this Article asks how mineral de vel-
opment, processing, and sourcing can be ca rried out in the
Fed. Reg. 23295 (May 18, 2018), available at https://www.govinfo.gov/
content/pkg/FR-2018-05-18/pdf/2018-10667.pdf. e agency proposed a
revised list in 2021 of 50 critical minerals, but the larger number largely
resulted from splitting out some minerals that were previously placed in
categories. 2021 Draft List of Critical Minerals, 86 Fed. Reg. 62199, 62200
(Nov. 9, 2021):
Much of the increase in the number of mineral commodities, from
35 commodities and groups on the nal 2018 list to 50 commodi-
ties on the 2021 draft list, is the result of splitting the rare earth ele-
ments and platinum group elements into individual entries rather
than including them as mineral groups.
e agency did make a few important changes to the list, including the
addition of nickel and zinc, which are important minerals for certain types
of renewable energy technologies. In any event, while the proposed USGS
2021 list goes well beyond the list of minerals that might be important for
renewable energy development, it does include all or most of the minerals
of concern for that industry. An important mineral left o the list that is
critical for most renewable technologies, as well as for transmission infra-
structure, is copper.
Author’s Note: The author is grateful for the outstanding
contributions to this Article made by research assistants
Tristan Fromm and Garrett Leapley, and for the helpful
comments received from the 2023 University of California,
Los Angeles/Colorado Summer Symposium participants.
Copyright © 2024 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. Reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120.
12024 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORTER 54 ELR 10059
most responsible way. More specically, it addresses three
aspects of the minerals challenge for scaling renewable
energy development. First, it identies the key minerals
that are or may be needed to deploy the most important
renewable energy tech nologies, i ncluding PV solar, wind,
and batteries. Second, it describes the chal lenges in gain-
ing access to adequate supplies of these minerals while also
protecting the environmental and social va lues that simul-
taneously drive the renewables push. Fina lly, it examines
the role of government in meeting the minerals challenge,
and considers how government can advance the transition
to renewables while minimizing the impacts to the envi-
ronment and society from the production and deployment
of renewable technologies .
One of the challenges in writing about the miner-
als needed for renewable energy is to dene an appropri-
ate scope for this analysis. e discussion of the minerals
needed, and the supply a nd demand issues reg arding those
minerals, is necessa rily more global in nature. For practi-
cal reasons, however, the discussion of the legal issues is
focused more clearly on U.S. domestic law, although exam-
ples from foreign countries are occasionally oered to sug-
gest ideas for improving U.S. laws.
I. The Minerals Needed for
Renewable Energy
Before assessing future demand for the minerals that wi ll
be needed to scale renewable energy deployment at levels
necessary to meet the climate challenge, it is importa nt to
acknowled ge that technological adva ncements are likely to
alter both the type and quantity of minerals needed for
particular energ y systems. is is especially true for bat-
teries used for both EVs and energy storage. For example,
cobalt is a key element needed for many lithium-ion (Li-
ion) batteries used today, but multiple, well-funded play-
ers are engaged in substa ntial research foc used on reducing
or eliminating cobalt in these batteries. ese eorts have
achieved some level of success and further advancements
seem likely.3
Likewise, batteries used to store energy are likely to
evolve in dierent ways to take advantage of the fact that
they do not have the same need to minimize t heir size and
weight. Metal-air batteries, especially iron-air and zinc-air
batteries, show particular promise in providing substantial
storage capacity with commonly available minerals, albeit
at a size and weight that would not be practical for EVs.
Proponents of iron-air batteries, for example, claim that
this technology can deliver electricity for 100 hours at less
than one-tenth the cost of Li-ion batteries.4
3. Magdalena Petrova, Here’s Why Battery Manufactures Like Samsung and Pan-
asonic and Car Makers Like Tesla Are Embracing Cobalt-Free Batteries, CNBC
(Nov. 17, 2021), https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/17/samsung-panasonic-
and-tesla-embracing-cobalt-free-batteries-.html.
4. News Release, Form Energy, Inc., Form Energy Unveils Chemistry of Multi-
Day Storage Battery Technology (July 22, 2021), https://www.prnewswire.
com/news-releases/form-energy-unveils-chemistry-of-multi-day-storage-
battery-technology-301339075.html.
So, even as I identify the minerals needed to fuel the
renewable energy economy, I recognize the possibility and
perhaps the likelihood that the technologies themselves will
evolve in ways that will reduce, and perhaps substantially
eliminate, the demand for mineral s that are the most costly,
the most dicult to source, and the most problematic from
the perspective of the physical and social environment. Any
eort to identify the mineral s needed to support rapid renew-
able energy deployment must also recognize the hig h degree
of uncertainty that accompanies their contemporary use.
But even if the demand for problematic minerals decreases,
it seems impossible to avoid the conclusion that renewable
technologie s will require additional mineral resource s, and
that some of those minerals may be dic ult to source in the
quantities that are necessa ry to meet the challenge of transi-
tioning rapidly to a renewable energy economy.
With that in mind, the following section addresses cur-
rent expectations regarding t he mineral needs for three ke y
clean energy platforms: (1)PV solar panels; (2)onshore and
oshore wind turbines; and (3)EVs and batteries used for
both EVs and energy storage.
A. The Minerals Needed for PV Solar
e dominant types of solar panels available today are
monocryst alli ne and polycr ysta lline silicon. e se currently
comprise about 95% of the market.5 All PV solar panels are
composed primarily of aluminum-framed glass. Other key
minerals used to produce these pa nels are relatively abundant
and include c opper, silver, and silicon.6 New t ypes of panels
that rely more heavily on certain critica l minerals are becom-
ing more prevalent, including thin-lm panels such a s cad-
mium telluride (CdTe) and copper indium gallium selenide
(CIS/CIGS).7 Advances in PV solar technology have led to
a signicant reduction in the use of silver and polysilicon,
which are among the most expensive materials used to pro-
duce solar panels, and fur ther reductions in the use of these
materials for solar panels are e xpected.8 In addition, substan-
tial research is ongoing to ex plore the prospect of substituting
perovskite cells for silicon because they are cheaper to make,
potentially more ecient for producing energy, and can be
employed more exibly to generate electricity.9
5. U.S. EPA, End-of-Life Solar Panels: Regulations and Management, https://
www.epa.gov/hw/end-life-solar-panels-regulations-and-management (last
updated Oct. 23, 2023).
6. See E D ., I S F, R-
M S R E 11-13 (2019),
https://earthworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Responsible-min-
erals-sourcing-for-renewable-energy-MCEC_UTS_Earthworks-Report.
pdf [hereinafter E R I]; see also I E
A, T R C M C E T
6 (2021), https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/d2a83b-8c30-4e9d-
980a-52b6d9a86fdc/eRoleofCriticalMineralsinCleanEnergyTransitions.
pdf [hereinafter IEA R].
7. Tellurium, from which tellurides are formed, and indium and gallium are all
listed as crucial minerals. See IEA R, supra note 6, at 60, 248.
8. See id. at 56.
9. Derek Wise, Will Perovskite Give Silicone a Run for Its Money in Semiconduc-
tor Solar Cells?, E (Oct. 26, 2021), https://electrek.co/2021/10/26/
solution-processed-perovskite-semiconductors-could-allow-the-material-
compete-with-silicon-in-solar-cells/.
Copyright © 2024 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. Reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120.
