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Renewable Energy Expansion Boosts Demand for Non-Ferrous Metals

According to Wood Mackenzie predictions, a strong growth of renewable sources of energy will prompt a surge in demand for base metals in the observable future.

Aluminum, copper and zinc were named by Wood Mackenzie as commodities to watch. The experts note that as costs continue to fall, solar’s share of power supply will rise and begin to displace other forms of generation. This presents a huge opportunity for the base metals sector.

Wood Mackenzie’s base case scenario assumes that by the end of the century, temperatures will have risen by 2.8 to 3 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial times.

In this situation, demand for aluminum from the solar power sector would rise to 4.6 million tons in 2040 from 2.4 million tons in 2020. Demand for copper and zinc arising from solar power generation would rise accordingly to 0.7 million tons and 0.8 million tons a year by 2040 from 0.4 million tons in both cases in 2020.

These predictions were only around demand coming from the solar power industry, and did not speculate on total global demand.