Comments on: China’s Rare Earth Monopoly

By: EL

EL — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 15:08:03 +0000

Wind turbines do not “require” large amounts of rare earths. The largest direct drive wind turbine in production today, Enrcon E-126 (at 7.5 MW), is made with a wound field coil, and not permanent magnets. Permanent magnets are a convenience and not a necessity. All of Enercon’s turbines are manufactured without permanent magnets, and they are among the most visible of wind turbines in Europe today:

http://www.enercon.de/en-en/1337.htm

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:36:42 +0000

@sunweb: yes, there is an environmental footprint with these ‘clean technologies’, but they are called ‘clean’ for a reason, they’re numerous times more environmentally friendly than alternatives. additionally, i’ll note that many of these things on your page, and other contents of clean technologies, are also used in dirty tech.

the bottom line is — we need electricity. or, even if we don’t NEED it, our societies are not going to revert back to a world without it. so, what do you propose? there’s nothing more environmentally friendly than solar, wind, geothermal, and hydro now (and note that there are many diff kinds of solar technology that use diff materials). so, take your pick, much dirtier fossil fuels, or clean tech

By: sunweb

sunweb — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:04:30 +0000

Another view

Solar and wind capturing devices are not alternative energy sources. They are extensions of the fossil fuel supply. There is an illusion of looking at the trees and not the forest in the “Renewable” energy world. Not seeing the systems, machineries, fossil fuel uses and environmental assaults that create the devices to capture the sun, wind and biofuels allows myopia and false claims.
ERoEI is only a part of the the equation. Each of these processes and machines may only add a miniscule amount of energy to the final component of solar or wind devices. How else would we do it? There is always the old way. Who of us will go down first?
A story in pictures and diagrams:
From Machines making machines making machines
http://sunweber.blogspot.com/2011/12/machines-making-machines-making.html

By: Terry Floyd

Terry Floyd — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 01:35:30 +0000

The Earth Mother is sending a message and GIFT.
REE(Rare Earth Elements) so necessary for all those
wonderful Earth Friendly Technologies: wind mills, electric
cars, high tech gizmos, etc. are buried in mounds of Thorium!
Thorium the fuel used in Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR).
Thorium is radioactive and is required to be handles and stored as
a hazardous waste. These procedures are costly to the companies
mining Rees. There is proposal designating Thorium as a Nuclear Fuel
and giving relief to the REE companies.

By: Terry Floyd

Terry Floyd — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:58:20 +0000

The Earth Mother is sending a message and GIFT.
REE(Rare Earth Elements) so necessary for all those
wonderful Earth Friendly Technologies: wind mills, electric
cars, high tech gizmos, etc. are buried in mounds of Thorium!
Thorium the fuel used in Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR).
Thorium is radioactive and is required to be handled and stored as
a hazardous waste. These procedures are costly to the companies
mining REEs. There is a proposal designating Thorium as a Nuclear
Fuel and giving relief to the REE companies. U.S. Heavy Rare Earth Cooperative’s James Kennedy presents his case in this UTUBE.

By: Bob Wallace

Bob Wallace — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:59:19 +0000

Australia is also opening a rare earth mineral mine and processing plant.

REEs are not necessary in EVs. Tesla does not use them. Toyota will not use REEs in their soon-coming RAV4 Ev.