Featured in Go big or go home – 11-2020

Solar needs aluminum, but it has a carbon problem

Few doubt that aluminum frames will be a part of the solar module for some time to come. And with PV manufacturing continuing to scale, the carbon footprint of this versatile metal may prove a sustainability challenge.
Image: Richard Gould/Flickr

The energy transition, the World Bank says, will require more aluminum than any other metal. In order to keep temperatures below a two-degree increase, clean energy technologies will need almost six million tons of the metal each year by 2050. By comparison, the combined total of lithium, cobalt and nickel, the mineral poster children of …

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