EnviroLink Forum

Then, of course, there is this:

I only skimmed through the article but didn't notice a few aspects of this topic mentioned in the article. The effort to make better batteries for portable electronics has basically kick-started the modern electric vehicle industry. Now with supply chain constraints, the nastier battery ingredients have become too expensive so the latest battery tech is getting more and more environmentally friendly. Faster computer processors mean more heat in a small area so to keep the heat down and keep mobile devices battery size as small as possible, these computers are becoming more and more efficient (all energy use ends up as heat). Unfortunately touch screen technology is difficult without some "rare earth" elements along with LED lights and some types of solar panels and most wind turbine and most electric vehicle motors (all those need various rare earth elements). Wires represent a lot of the environmental impact of electronics so the trend to wireless systems is a good direction.

Mewonders: should we be worrying what happens when these rare elements run out?
It's almost like it's a race: can we reach sustainability before we run out of the means to do so?

Note that "rare earth elements" are not actually rare. The problem is the outer electrons look similar to other rare earths so they are hard to separate and purify. Because they are everywhere but in small amounts, the traditional way to "mine" them is to wash out deposits of ancient seas with harsh chemicals then evaporate all the water off in the several steps to concentrate and decontaminate the whole batch of rare earth elements. Then this is taken indoors for more science-based separation methods. Luckily, less environmentally damaging methods have been figured out but are a bit more expensive than the traditional methods. China, of course, has people willing to work at the traditional methods and don't care about the wildlife who may be affected so became the sole source for a long time but China decided to keep all the rare earths to themselves so if you wanted something with rare earths in it, you had to buy the product from China. This got many parts of the world getting into the industry and many of the products that used to need rare earths have been redesigned to not need rare earths or less of them (permanent magnets are the biggest use... That's what's in wind turbines and electric cars)

Japan area is a subduction zone so the Asian tectonic plates go under the Pacific ocean tectonic plates and melt and come out of volcanoes. An under-ocean string of volcanic eruptions within Japanese waters is rather high in rare earths and could provide all we need for centuries but the discovery is recent so mining operations are still only in the planning stages. USA , Mexico, and Quebec in Canada all have good deposits to mine that have projects in the early stages but one in USA had been using the traditional methods for decades before shutting down because China's rare earths were too cheap to keep running... They might be in full production with the new methods already or if not, this year at the latest.

Looking at your typical ground mounted solar PV system for a "grid scale" solar farm, the embodied carbon comes from things like the concrete of the foundation, the steel of the frame, and the aluminum frame of the PV panel. I tiny more is the silicon wafer in traditional cells. I hope to get a source of "green steel"... steel made using carbon dioxide and hydrogen gas (from carbon capture systems and electrolysis of green electricity) instead of coke and coal and uses electric arc for heat instead of fuel (usually coal for fuel because they were using coal for the carbon too). Then using solar-powered welding, make frames and use steel helical piles instead of concrete for a foundation... and of course those helical piles are green steel welded with green electricity. Bifacial solar panels are clear semiconductor material on clear plastic so they convert light hitting both sides to electricity. Flat mirrors on the ground can reflect light upwards to a solar thermal collection plate facing downward. The problem with this is it only works when the sun is rather high in the sky. Any dirt or scratches on the mirrors and the light scatters a bit. If I hang bifacial solar PV under the solar thermal plate I mentioned above, it will catch stray reflected light, cloudy day light, and low angle sunlight the solar thermal can't access. Because the PV is just hanging there and protected from snow and rain water pooling, it won't need a stiff aluminum frame. I hope to build such a prototype solar collection system... A low carbon version. About half your solar collected needs to be stored for making electricity at night. That night output will come from the solar thermal and the solar PV will do the daytime output. Note this will be lined up north-south direction and the mirrors follow the sun through the day.