It actually calls out dysprosium as the biggest problem, with neodymium, terbium, europium, yttrium, and indium as the next biggest worries.
This is fairly old though, I read it back in 2010. I've read about a number of breakthroughs on higher strength-to-weight magnetic materials and I'm sure solar has responded to this report accordingly as well. It's comforting to know that things seem to have worked out seven years later!
I think a lot of the stress in 2010 was because China was limiting exports and it became clear that the USA was at a strategic disadvantage because of vulnerability to Chinese actions. Glad that Obama took it so seriously by supporting funding to develop those new technologies.
My rare earth worries are based on this DOE report:
https://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/edg/news/documents/criti...
It actually calls out dysprosium as the biggest problem, with neodymium, terbium, europium, yttrium, and indium as the next biggest worries.
This is fairly old though, I read it back in 2010. I've read about a number of breakthroughs on higher strength-to-weight magnetic materials and I'm sure solar has responded to this report accordingly as well. It's comforting to know that things seem to have worked out seven years later!
I think a lot of the stress in 2010 was because China was limiting exports and it became clear that the USA was at a strategic disadvantage because of vulnerability to Chinese actions. Glad that Obama took it so seriously by supporting funding to develop those new technologies.