Report plays down wind industry impact on rare metals

The belief that Europe's wind power industry is a major user of rare earth metals is mistaken, according to a report from the European Commission's Joint Research centre (JRC).

by Paul Garrett 28 October 2011

Magnetic direct drive wind turbines...cleared by report
The report suggests that the share of neodymium and dysprosium that will be used by the European wind power sector in the 2020-2030 timeframe would only be 1% of world supply.

These materials are used in permanent magnet generators in wind turbines.

The JRC says that in 2020 Europe’s wind industry will use between 326 and 635 tonnes of neodymium and between 22 and 44 tonnes of dysprosium.

But the European Wind Energy Association said that a major shortcoming of the report is the assumption that supply of the rare metals will not increase beyond 2010 levels, despite future supply scenarios being publicly available.