Page 44 - European Energy Innovation magazine - autumn 2022 edition

Autumn 2022 European Energy Innovation
44 ENERGY TRANSITION

Enabling Europe’s energy

transition – solving the critical

raw materials challenge

By Harry Boyd-Carpenter (pictured), Managing Director, Climate Strategy and Delivery, EBRD

he scale of Europe’s energy in the battery value chain, especially At the EBRD, we are very aware of the
transition is extraordinary. cobalt (+585 per cent by 2050), critical raw material risk and believe
The bloc is embarking on lithium (+965 per cent by 2050) and that extra effort is needed to facilitate
Ta transformation of its graphite (+383 per cent by 2050). the financing of exploration and
energy sector that is unprecedented production. There is a lack of funding
in economic history. In less than a Similarly, according to a recent IEA for early mining and exploration
decade markets and networks built report, a typical electric car projects in the EU, as these are high-
over more than a century to consume requires six times the mineral risk transactions. The financing of
coal, oil and gas will have been input of a conventional car; an mining projects is complex, but the
transformed: fuelled overwhelmingly onshore wind plant requires nine rewards for society and the returns
by electricity, generated in turn from times more mineral resources than for investors can be significant, as
renewables, especially wind and a gas-fired plant of the same the EBRD has demonstrated. The
solar. The urgency of the climate capacity; and generating 1 TWh of EBRD has been investing in mining
crisis, starkly visible across Europe electricity from solar and wind projects for more than 20 years, with
this summer, is driving this shift power could consume, respectively, an existing portfolio of €2 billion
but it has been given extra impetus 300 per cent and 200 percent more in more than 30 mining projects.
by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and metals than generating the same These are investments not only
the consequent focus on reducing amount from a gas-fired power in critical raw materials, but other
reliance on hydrocarbons. plant. Being green today goes hand minerals essential to our daily lives,
in hand with supporting exploration such as copper, nickel, iron ore and
That energy revolution is also for and the extraction of those chromium. As a result, the Bank has
a manufacturing revolution, minerals. the skills and expertise to manage
turbocharging demand for a host the kind of complex transactions that
of products such as wind turbines, Consequently global concerns raw-material mining requires.
solar panels, batteries, heat pumps, are growing over the availability
electric vehicles and batteries. In and reliability of access to certain For example, we invested €5 million
turn this prompts a dramatic increase minerals and metals. Promoting in the shares of Euro Manganese,
in the need for the critical raw an increase in the scale and a Czech company that is cleaning
materials, so called because of their security of the supply of critical up mining tailings and converting
economic importance and high risk of raw materials is accordingly a key them into high-purity manganese, a
supply shortage, that those products concern for the European Union (EU) key component of electric batteries
require. economy and the European Bank for which is currently supplied almost
Reconstruction and Development entirely by China. We also provided
According to the European (EBRD). €25 million to the Elemental
Technology and Innovation Platform Recycling project in Poland, which
on Batteries, Europe is forecast to The latest EU list of critical raw includes a facility for recycling
account for a 16 per cent share of the materials contains 30 minerals lithium-ion batteries for electric
2,550 GWh global battery market by and metals, the supply of which is vehicles and platinum-group metals.
2029, compared with just less than often highly concentrated in specific This facility is the first of its kind in
6 per cent of today’s 450 GWh. The countries. For example, China the EU and the EBRD regions and
inevitable result will be much higher processes 98 per cent of the EU’s is expected to achieve a recycling
demand for the raw materials required rare earth element supply. rate of 90 per cent of the lithium-ion

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