What are critical minerals?
Nations have long sought to secure supplies of materials they deem vital to their industrial and military capabilities. About 50 metallic elements and minerals have met those criteria in the US and European Union, including lithium, graphite, cobalt, manganese and rare earths — elements with unique chemical behaviors that make them indispensable to the manufacture of some electrical, electronic, magnetic and optical products. Most critical minerals were chosen for their role in building the infrastructure required to reduce carbon emissions blamed for climate change, a mission that’s backed by hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies and tax breaks. Some are also used in semiconductors for civil and military communications.
Hydrogen from Water
In its recent quarterly results call, US power giant NextEra announced that its utility subsidiary Florida Power & Light (FPL) plans to build a 20 megawatt electrolyzer to produce hydrogen from water.
The specific application planned by FPL solves multiple problems. First, it addresses the problem of what to do with “curtailed” solar and wind, which is the electricity generated from these sources that cannot be used and must be wasted.
Additionally, Microsoft—one of the world’s largest renewable energy buyers—is also starting to explore hydrogen. The tech giant recently joined the Hydrogen Council and has been testing fuel cells as backup power at its data centres.
All of that said, there are still challenges to development of a green hydrogen ecosystem. Electrolyzers are still quite expensive, particularly when compared to the steam methane reforming (SMR) method of hydrogen production using natural gas.
However, manufacture is moving from manual to automated production as the sector matures, and many industry observers are predicting that this technology will follow the cost declines seen with solar and battery storage as it scales.
Nikola Orders Enough Electrolysis Equipment From Nel to Produce 40,000 kgs of Hydrogen Per Day
Electric Vehicles
The rise of electric vehicles (EV)1 means long-established automotive players are experiencing profound and prolonged challenges such as new technologies and products, new competitors like Tesla Motors and Google, and the rise of fuel-efficiency regulations.
This potential for EV uptake, however, varies greatly across domestic markets.
