China's rare earth metals crucial to efficient windpower

The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) recently predicted that the world’s wind power capacity will increase by 160 percent in the next five years, and adding this additional 250.5 GW of wind energy will require 167,000 tonnes of rare earth metals.

It is estimated that over 90% of the world's rare earth metals are exported from China, and these are crucial to the new generation of ultra-efficient windpower turbines. As China itself plans to construct another 130+ Gigawatts of wind capacity over the next decade, how long are these rare earth minerals and metals going to be available for export?

Neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium are all rare earth metals whose pricing and availability globally could be affected by internal Chinese demand.