Material requirements for the energy transition - Energy technology profiles and environmental impacts

The transition to low-carbon energy systems will require vast amounts of minerals, at rates and volumes which have been deemed at risk of being incompatible with how the mining industry and supply chains worked and operated in the past. Material production also plays a substantial role in global greenhouse gas emissions while generating social and environmental impacts locally. The deployment of decarbonization technologies across the power, heat, and transport sectors as well as for storage needs to factor in these resource concerns and integrate sound mitigation strategies. To that effect, the project InteRessE - Resource Demand for the Energy Transformation: Interdisciplinary Evaluation of Scenarios to Supply Electricity and Heat - funded by BMWK has assessed the economic, social, and environmental risks associated with the material requirements for the German energy transition. The quantification of the material intensity for each energy technology and under consideration of material efficiency measures up until 2050 is hereby a central result. Studies on the metal requirements for energy technologies have multiplied over the last decade. Material intensity data are however often dispersed, as many studies focus on a specific technology such as photovoltaics, wind turbine, or battery. Modelling the requirements for intersectoral energy scenarios is rendered significantly time-consuming. Further, the environmental impacts of material requirements for energy technologies are mostly out of scope of existing studies, despite being interlinked. Material efficiency measures resulting from technological development are not systematically considered as well. This working paper addresses these gaps and represents an effort to facilitate and speed-up research work on the material requirements for the energy transition. It provides background information on 19 energy technologies for electricity and heat production, storage and transport, as well as building renovation. Each of these “technology profiles” provides a brief technology description with assumed lifetime and production location, a quantitative assessment of relevant material efficiency measures, and the material intensity until 2050. The material intensity is expressed in kg/MW (e.g., for power generation technologies), kg/kWh (e.g., for battery), kg/km of transmission line or kg/m² of renovated/built living space, depending on the technology considered. Additionally, a selection of environmental impacts is assessed. These impacts are represented by the impact on Climate Change with the Global Warming Potential as an indicator for political targets and action, and Resource Use with Abiotic Depletion Potential as an indicator for the cumulative impact of resource use totaled for metals and other abiotic resources.