Earlier quoted context omitted.
most solar panels do not currently use indium, gallium, selenium, cadmium, or tellurium, none of which are rare earth elements (though indium is pretty rare) the solar panels that used those cannot economically compete with silicon pv for utility-scale solar any more (perhaps that will change) silicon is also not a rare earth element (and is not at all rare) evs and wind turbines can use rare earth elements, it's tru…
https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2021/10/how-to-build-a-low-t... Schottky cells are another bandgap, which could be lower cost: "According to Philip Pesavento, Cove then managed to refine the composition of the alloy close to Zn4Sb3 – a zinc-antimony alloy with proportions of 4 parts zinc to 6 parts antimony. That, we now know, is also a semiconductor. However, it has a bandgap of 1.2 eV – very close to the bandgap of…
Re: Europe's largest deposit of rare earth metals discovered in Sweden
#341antimony is toxic, rare, and expensive, and silicon is none of these, so antimony-based solar cells are unlikely ever to be an economically superior alternative to silicon-based solar cells