Dear Colleagues,

The share of renewable sources in the world’s total energy generation is expected to rise from ca. 10% in 2015 to at least 40%, but maybe even 70%, in 2050. Of the renewable energy sources, those with the greatest development prospects to 2050 are solar and wind energy. However, a key issue with their efficient use is the development of effective, large‑scale energy storage systems. Another key factor limiting the expected development of the use of solar and wind energy is the availability of the minerals that are absolutely crucial to the production of:

• wind turbines, which require such rare earth metals as neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium and to some extent require boron, rhenium, tantalum, etc.;
• photovoltaic cells, which require gallium, indium, silver, selenium, tellurium, and silicon and to some extent require, or in the future may require, cadmium, germanium, molybdenum, niobium, etc.; and
• new generations of batteries, accumulators, and large-scale energy storage systems, which require lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, graphite, and lead and to some extent require, or in the future may require, zinc, cadmium, vanadium, etc.

Demand for many of these minerals over the next 30 years may be 4–12 times higher than their current total production, which may be a significant factor limiting the development of the use of these leading renewable energy sources.

In this context, this Special Issue aims to present the results of research on various aspects of the management, sources (existing and possible), and markets of the abovementioned minerals, which are currently used or may in the future be used for the production of wind turbines and photovoltaic cells and batteries, taking into account the issue of the security of their delivery within mineral policy frameworks at an individual country level and the international level.

Prof. Dr. Krzysztof Galos
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• minerals for renewable energy generation and storage
• mineral markets
• mineral security
• mineral policy
• energy security
• renewable energy