Renewable Energy Materials Properties Database (REMPD)
Wind Availability
We use the REMPD's scenario analysis capabilities (described in the Wind Overview) to estimate projected annual material quantities for all U.S. wind plants under two future wind deployment scenarios: Current Policies and High Deployment (refer to the Wind Overview for more details; Table 3 in the Wind Overview section also summarizes the data sources for the material intensities that are used to estimate material quantities). This section summarizes how the projected U.S. wind energy demand for each material compares to projected availability (as measured using total known global reserves) and global production in 2020.
U.S. Wind Energy Demand for Critical Minerals as a Percentage of Projected Availability
Download DataTo estimate how U.S. wind energy material requirements compare to projected availability of critical materials, REMPD reports the projected U.S. wind energy demand for each mineral as a percentage of total global reserves for that mineral (as estimated in 2020). For example, current U.S. deployment of 10 GW of wind energy per year requires less than 0.2% of total known global dysprosium reserves.
U.S. Wind Energy Demand for Vulnerable Materials as a Percentage of Current Global Production
Download DataTo estimate how U.S. wind energy material requirements compare to current global production, we report the projected U.S. wind energy demand for vulnerable wind materials as a percentage of annual global production of the material in 2020. These results are intended to inform how the production of a commodity might need to change over time to meet material demand for U.S. wind energy technologies; they do not indicate a shortage in raw material availability. For example, current U.S. deployment of 10 GW of wind energy requires more than 3% of the amount of carbon fiber that was produced globally in 2020.