Enough to go round. A major 2023 study in the journal Joule found that Earth has enough of the key minerals to shift to clean electricity, even in the fastest transition scenarios. The world also has enough lithium for electric vehicles, though production needs to scale up. A review of the whole field of 100% renewable energy research concluded that resources are a challenge, but not a barrier.

Far less mining than fossil fuels. The world extracts roughly 15 billion tonnes of fossil fuels every year. The minerals needed for clean energy are hundreds to thousands of times smaller by weight. Even including the waste rock dug up to reach them, the transition needs less mining overall. And there’s a crucial difference: fossil fuels are burned once and gone, while minerals stay in use for decades and can be recovered.

Recycling and new technology. Battery and turbine-blade recycling is advancing quickly. New battery types are also reducing the need for scarce materials: the world’s biggest battery maker, CATL, began mass-producing sodium-ion batteries for cars in 2026. They use no lithium or cobalt.

Batteries don’t have to do everything. Some critics claim batteries would need to store weeks of the whole country’s energy. That’s not how a renewables-based grid works. Batteries handle short gaps, while longer gaps are covered by a mix of other storage, interconnectors, flexible demand and a diverse range of renewables. See our explainer on how 100% renewables works.

Using less helps too. Research by the Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions shows the UK could roughly halve its energy use while maintaining or improving quality of life. Less energy means fewer minerals. So does using them wisely: more public transport and smaller vehicles, rather than ever-bigger SUVs.

The real challenge: supply chains. The International Energy Agency says the concern has shifted from whether there’s enough to how secure supply chains are. Refining is concentrated in a few countries, especially China, and prices for some minerals have swung sharply. Mining must also meet high environmental and human rights standards. These are serious problems, and they need investment, diversified supply, recycling and strong standards. But fossil fuels carry the same risk in a far worse form: we have to keep buying them, every day, often from unstable or hostile states. A clean energy system, once built, runs on wind and sunshine.