China Threatens U.S. Alt Energy Plans.....“Rare earths are...

China Threatens U.S. Alt Energy Plans

.....“Rare earths are critical to all future ‘green’ energy, especially with things like permanent magnets for windmills (not to mention the rare earths that go into those ‘efficient’ light bulbs.) Every large windmill, for example, requires about 560 pounds of a rare earth called neodymium, for the permanent magnet within the turbine system. There’s no substitute for neodymium. People have gone through the entire periodic chart, and only neodymium will work in large permanent magnets.

“The U.S. has NO locale for manufacturing permanent magnets. None. Zilch.”

“The West had better get serious about rare earths or we’re forfeiting the key industries of the 21st century to China.”

http://dailyreckoning.com/china-threatens-us-alt-energy-plans/



China's Energizing Enterprise

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This news is even more startling if taken into context with Lisa Margonelli's piece on clean energy in May's edition of The Atlantic. She makes an important point about clean energy's reliance on rare earth metal neodymium, a necessary component for lightweight permanent magnets in hybrid motors and wind turbine generators:

But in 2006, nearly all of the world's roughly 137,000-ton supply of rare-earth oxides came from China. And over the past few years, China has cut exports to nurture its own permanent-magnet industry, sending the price of neodymium oxide to a high of $60 a kilo in 2007. This worries analysts like Irving Mintzer, a senior adviser to the Potomac Energy Fund who sees shortages stifling clean-tech industry, and worse. "If we don't think this through, we could be trading a troubling dependence on Middle Eastern oil for a troubling dependence on Chinese neodymium."
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http://business.theatlantic.com/2009/05/chinas_energizing_enterprise.php