[ExI] not that rare earth (part 2 of at least 2)

[spike at rainier66.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com> 
Subject: Re: [ExI] not that rare earth (part 2 of at least 2)

If you want to understand this topic, read this

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare-earth_element

It is long but fairly comprehensive.

Keith






OK cool thx Keith.

An EV uses 1 to 2 kg.  The spot price for neodymium is 150 bucks a kg, up from 75 kg seven years ago.

So an additional 75 to 150 bucks per non-Musk EV.  Elon mandated those be eliminated, so Tesla doesn't use them.

What the Wiki article doesn't say is what happens if we substitute molybdenum for the neodymium,  which is what I think Tesla did: they are using MoFeB magnets.  They aren't saying how they did it.  Samarium is cheap, even now.  I am not sure why.  Perhaps it's a byproduct of something else.

Wind turbines: those use a lot of material, 600 kg of REEs per turbine.  So those are effected a lot.  But the real cost of wind energy is in power storage anyway.  In any case, if the turbines give away a half a percent in efficiency, that surely wouldn't be a showstopper.  They have bigger worries: the environmentalists might try to destroy them to save birds.

Regarding my post on fire-resistant power storage, I am surprised no one checked my estimates.

spike