The US will need a lot more neodymium if it wants an offshore wind boom

Enlarge / Metal plates of rare-earth neodymium magnets for 3D rendering. (credit: Getty Images)

Magnets made of rare-earth metals like neodymium are commonly used in the generators found in offshore wind turbines. Turbines with neodymium magnets generally need less maintenance than those without them-an advantage when your turbine is a few miles out from land.

But neodymium is costly, it almost all comes from China (which has restricted export in the past to drive prices up), and the environmental impact of extracting it from the Earth is not super.

Although there are hardly any offshore wind turbines in US waters today, the US Department of Energy (DOE) in 2015 mapped out a plan to expand offshore wind to 86 gigawatts (GW) of capacity by 2050. If such a future comes to pass, the US will need to think about its supply of neodymium, especially if US government officials push for domestic offshore wind turbine manufacturing.

Read 13 remaining paragraphs | Comments