The Cost of Clean Energy

With the capacity to produce around 35,000 megawatts, United States is, as of 2008, the largest wind power consumer in the world. Currently, about 2% of the electricity used in the United States is generated by wind turbines. Electric cars, in turn, help reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere by 30%, given the present-day U.S. energy mix. Less than 1% of the population is driving an electric car today, but the trend is becoming more and more popular. These some of the most remarkable developments in technology, and some day, they will keep our planet clean and well-maintained. That is not the case now, because wind turbines and electric vehicles are just two of a whole large set of technologies that use rare earth metals. Rare earths are "'large permanent magnets make the generators feasible,'" and they are starting to worry both the academia and the business world. Used in "computers, screens, superconductors, oil refineries, hybrid or electric vehicles, catalytic converters, compact fluorescent light bulbs, light-emitting diodes, lasers, audio speakers and microphones, cell phones, MRI machines, telecommunications, battery electrodes, advanced weapons systems, polished glass, and even [some] electric motors," rare earths are used to generate electricity which key to many of these inventions, including clean-energy technologies, like wind turbines and electric cars. Ironically, however, these metals are causing a lasting environmental impact. Rare earths have to be mined, a process which often destroys natural environments and creates dangerous working conditions. Then, the metals have to be separated for industrial use by a process of "intensive boiling with strong acids" which dissolves the metals out of the ore rock. The acids used are highly toxic, and these acids also dissolve the radioactive materials often located near and around the rare earths releasing deadly particles into the atmosphere. Another problem is that these metals do not regenerate quickly enough, so as more and more electric vehicles appear on the road, more and more rare earths must be harvested. We are running out of these metals very quickly, which is why U.S. Department of Energy and General Electric have been tinkering with these compounds in order to create efficient methodologies to mass-produce them synthetically. Research continues, but it is clear that "rare earths [materials problem] won't be solved anytime soon." While I was always fully aware of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states that entropy in the universe is always increasing with time and explains the notion of irreversibility in nature, I never realized how much of an impact it has on real life. Rare earths are a perfect example of humans overcoming great challenges and partaking in great innovation in an attempt to create order in the universe and failing in certain scopes of doing so. The challenge stands for a new generation of thinkers to solve, and I hope some day soon, despite all odds, we will be able to say with confidence - "We now know how to solve this problem."