This report is an updated analysis of previous Critical Materials Strategy (CMS) reports published by the DOE in 2010, 2011, and 2019 based on national and global priorities, technology advancement, and technology adoption trends. Like the CMS reports, this analysis presents the results of a formal material criticality assessment to identify which materials are critical to the continued worldwide deployment of clean energy technologies. The analysis in this report leveraged the DOE supply chain deep-dive assessments to develop the initial list of materials to evaluate.
This report includes engineered materials that were identified as bottlenecks for clean energy deployment in DOE’s deep-dive assessments, namely silicon carbide (SiC) and electrical steel. The use of SiC in power electronics has become more significant, particularly for electric vehicle (EV) inverters. While expansion of SiC wafer manufacturing capacity seems able to keep up with demand, low yield and high cost are key constraints on growth. In addition to engineered materials, this assessment considers a larger set of materials and technologies than previous CMS reports and introduces a formal screening methodology to determine which materials to include in the criticality assessment.
Critical Materials Assessment
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