Solar is growing rapidly, but producers are running out of aluminum, a not so carbon-friendly material.
A study published in Nature Sustainability found that, given the accelerating global effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, solar capacity will need to grow by 85 times its current amount. The researchers believe “we will need more than 60 TW of photovoltaics installed and must be producing up to 4.5 TW of additional capacity each year if we are to rapidly reduce emissions to ‘net zero’.” According to their estimates, this will account for roughly 40% of the aluminum brought to market, an amount that is widely considered to be infeasible. The situation is even worse for renewable energy when you consider the fact that aluminum is also an important material in the production of wind turbines and lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles.
Read more here: http://thehappyneuron.com/2022/01/solar-energy-has-an-aluminum-problem/