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The geopolitics of metals and metalloids used for the renewable energy transition

Månberger, André LU and Johansson, B. LU (2019) In Energy Strategy Reviews 26.
Abstract

This study examines the geopolitical role of 14 metals and metalloids needed for renewable energy technologies. The analysis focuses on three factors with potential geopolitical importance: the geographic concentration of resources, potential revenues of resources rich countries and the size of total global markets. The geographic concentration of most of the fourteen studied metals and metalloids will be higher than for oil. The only exceptions are tellurium, copper and silicon. The economic revenues as fraction of total economic throughput will be rather low for most of the countries studied. This will reduce the risk for a resource curse to emerge. The exceptions are the Democratic republic of Congo, Chile, Cuba, Madagascar and... (More)

This study examines the geopolitical role of 14 metals and metalloids needed for renewable energy technologies. The analysis focuses on three factors with potential geopolitical importance: the geographic concentration of resources, potential revenues of resources rich countries and the size of total global markets. The geographic concentration of most of the fourteen studied metals and metalloids will be higher than for oil. The only exceptions are tellurium, copper and silicon. The economic revenues as fraction of total economic throughput will be rather low for most of the countries studied. This will reduce the risk for a resource curse to emerge. The exceptions are the Democratic republic of Congo, Chile, Cuba, Madagascar and Zambia. The total economic value of the studied metals and metalloids will also be much smaller than the current oil market.

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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Critical material, Energy transition, Geopolitics, Renewable energy, Resource curse
in
Energy Strategy Reviews
volume
26
article number
100394
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85070906034
ISSN
2211-467X
DOI
10.1016/j.esr.2019.100394
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
e4f34a5f-6f9d-415e-982d-1afa3b7ad54f
date added to LUP
2019-09-09 11:13:28
date last changed
2022-04-26 05:11:43
@article{e4f34a5f-6f9d-415e-982d-1afa3b7ad54f,
  abstract     = {{<p>This study examines the geopolitical role of 14 metals and metalloids needed for renewable energy technologies. The analysis focuses on three factors with potential geopolitical importance: the geographic concentration of resources, potential revenues of resources rich countries and the size of total global markets. The geographic concentration of most of the fourteen studied metals and metalloids will be higher than for oil. The only exceptions are tellurium, copper and silicon. The economic revenues as fraction of total economic throughput will be rather low for most of the countries studied. This will reduce the risk for a resource curse to emerge. The exceptions are the Democratic republic of Congo, Chile, Cuba, Madagascar and Zambia. The total economic value of the studied metals and metalloids will also be much smaller than the current oil market.</p>}},
  author       = {{Månberger, André and Johansson, B.}},
  issn         = {{2211-467X}},
  keywords     = {{Critical material; Energy transition; Geopolitics; Renewable energy; Resource curse}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Energy Strategy Reviews}},
  title        = {{The geopolitics of metals and metalloids used for the renewable energy transition}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.esr.2019.100394}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.esr.2019.100394}},
  volume       = {{26}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}