Kelly Jackson
@Kelly.Jackson · Updated 19 Apr. 2022

Green energy is the future. The prices for basic materials like aluminum, copper, steel and nickel have already inflated. Just as inflated prices for oil and natural gas rip through the economy, so do the costs of basic minerals, which builds every class of product from houses and appliances to  cars and computers. While materials have constituted a minor share of the final cost of products for most of recent history, that share becomes major if mineral prices balloon.

Rachael Davis
@Rachael.Davis · Updated 19 Apr. 2022

Producing energy from wind and solar machines and especially from batteries requires an enormous increase in supplies of copper, nickel, aluminum, graphite, lithium, and other minerals. Each electric vehicle contains about 400 pounds more aluminum and about 150 pounds more copper than a normal car.

Lily Campbell
@Lily.Campbell · Updated 19 Apr. 2022

Lithium we knew because of car and phone batteries has seen its price soar nearly 1000% in past 2 years. Prices of copper and nickel, more widely used, are up 200% and 300% respectively over the same period. Aluminum, the second-most-used metal on Earth after iron ore, is up 200% and trading at a 30-year high.