"Solar power is the future,” says Noelani Kirschner, a writer for the US State Department. Kirschner’s 2021 article is full of boundless optimism for solar power, finding that the US will be able to source 40% of its energy from solar by 2035. Yet, solar energy is flawed. Immensely so.
The main issue with solar power is that of storage. Since panels can’t generate electricity at night, batteries need to store electricity from dusk to dawn. To make solar energy viable, a large-scale storage network the likes of which has never been attempted before would be strictly necessary. More troublesome, though, is the construction of these batteries. Lithium-ion batteries, the battery used in phones, computers, and home-based solar energy storage systems, uses materials that are growing more and more scarce. These batteries use lithium, copper, cobalt, and nickel. All of these are found in large localized deposits that are starting to run dry. Even worse, these batteries use rare-earth elements (REEs), key materials that are some of the most scarce resources in the world.
Shortages of these metals have already begun, driving up the prices of everything that uses them, including computers, motors, medical technology, and various types of green tech. While the sun’s energy might be renewable, these metals certainly aren’t. If the US wants to meet Kirschner’s 40% of energy by 2035 goal, it’d need to engage in destructive deep-sea mining with the potential to permanently disrupt the Earth’s natural climate regulation.
Even if there were enough metals to mine, would buying them up be worth it? A 2016 report by a team of MIT students and alumni found that REE mining and refining operations in Malaysia and the Congo pay paltry wages to workers and poison critical water sources with radioactive material. Yes, some alternatives are worse. The proposed Mphanda Nkuwa Hydroelectric Dam in Mozambique is forecasted to displace thousands of people. Wind turbines fall into similar challenges with REEs as solar, but they require more of the metals than even solar panels. Some alternatives, though, are much better. For all of the fearmongering, nuclear power remains the cleanest, least deadly form of energy around. Germany’s Green Party rails against nuclear power, but it kills fewer per kilowatt-hour than any other form of power. The best part is that uranium is far less scarce than the REEs used in solar.
The green transition is a challenging issue with huge international ramifications. As this article has hopefully shown, it’s a lot more complicated than putting solar panels on every roof.
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