China and South Korean wind farm projects put pressure on rare earth supply

• 12 years ago (2011-11-18)
• David Flin

Asia 849 North America 998 Renewables 752

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China and South Korea’s planned investment in offshore wind farms, amounting to close to $25 billion in the near future, could be hampered by pressure on the supply of rare earth materials. Rare earths industry experts said that the extent of these projects, which could produce close to 33 GW by 2020, would push the demand for rare earths in the Asia-Pacific region.

IBTimes has reported that the extensive use of permanent magnets will push the demand and price for rare earths in 2012. Mike Smith, CEO of rare earth producer Molycorp, said: “We’re talking double-digit compounded annual growth rates for the foreseeable future. Nobody knows when that’s going to stop, so that’s a huge growth market for us. The wind turbines that are currently being built are using permanent magnet generators so they can be more efficient than the old inductive coil gearbox type systems.”

Smith said that the current supply constraints, with about 95 percent of the world’s supply of rare earths coming from China, meant that there is now pressure on the prices of non-Chinese suppliers.