Figure 1: Minerals for Climate Action: The Mineral Intensity of the Clean Energy Transition, World bank group 2022 A more recent World Bank analysis shows that clean energy technologies will massively increase demand for certain minerals compared with 2018 production levels. Battery materials—especially graphite, lithium, and cobalt—will see the strongest growth, in some cases requiring up to five times today’s output. By 2050, the largest absolute production increases are expected for aluminum, graphite, and nickel. Graphite stands out in both percentage and volume: around 4.5 million tons will be needed annually by 2050 (a total of 68 million tons). This represents nearly a 500 % increase compared with 2018, highlighting graphite’s central role in the energy transition and its essential use in lithium-ion battery anodes. Electrification -replacing technologies or processes that use fossil fuels - is one of the most important strategies for reducing CO2 emissions. For example the quantities of energy that the European steel sector is likely to need will also rise sharply. The sector will need, annually, about 400 TWh of CO2-free electricity from the grid by 2050. This 400 TWh corresponds to more than seven times the steel industry’s current electricity purchase from the grid. Of this, around 230 TWh would be used for the production of about 5.5 million tonnes of hydrogen (EUROFER). The EU electricity demand is projected to rise significantly, with forecasts from the European Commission suggesting to a doubling of electricity's share in final energy consumption. 187
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM0Mzk2