http://energy.gov/eere/amo/critical-materials-research-needed-secure-us-manufacturing-officials-say[font face=Serif][font size=5]Critical materials research needed to secure U.S. manufacturing, officials say[/font]
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Energy Department officials said yesterday that developing alternatives to critical materials, like rare earth metals used in solar panels and wind turbines, is crucial to American manufacturing stability and can help the United States circumvent global market pressures.
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Such supply bottlenecks can ripple throughout the manufacturing sector, particularly for clean technologies like photovoltaic cells and electric vehicle motors that rely on rare materials. According to DOE's 2011 Critical Materials Strategy report, the United States faces supply challenges for dysprosium, europium, neodymium, terbium and yttrium. Other metals like lithium are teetering on the brink of shortages.
To combat this, the department last week announced the Critical Materials Institute, an interdisciplinary research hub, at DOE's Ames Laboratory in Iowa. The program will receive $120 million over five years.
Alex King, director of the new materials hub, said his objectives are to target all aspects of the critical materials supply chain. "I think the short-term objective is to make mining viable no matter what the cost profile looks like," he said, noting that developing mineral resources inside the United States can be difficult due to transportation costs, volatile markets and environmental regulations. "Some of our goals are to help them and other processes to meet those requirements at lower costs," he added.
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[font size=4]Lithium shortage likely to worsen[/font]
"Lithium is a near-critical element now," King said, observing that the rise of electric vehicles and their lithium chemistry batteries will create a demand surge for the metal. These problems will only get worse as more renewable energy sources and electric vehicles come online.
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