Unique properties and characteristics

The main applications in the renewable energy industry

The rapid advancement of the global energy transition over the last few years has placed a strong emphasis on some of the materials that are promoting humanity’s energy progress, also attributing them a precise strategic value. Among these are not only resources such as lithium or rare earth, which are already widely demonstrating their usefulness in a wide variety of applications but also aluminum, which today is considered, to all intents and purposes, one of the true protagonists of the energy transition, one of its fundamental pillars. With its useful natural characteristics, such as lightness, resistance to corrosion, and high recyclability potential, aluminum finds, in fact, ample application spaces in numerous production processes directly connected to the energy transition, such as those concerning the construction of some important infrastructures that are accompanying the ecological transformation at a global level. Another highly appreciated feature, as far as aluminum is concerned, is certainly its excellent conductive capacity, which makes it a very valuable ally in energy transmission systems.

A key role

In the field of renewable energy and all the infrastructures connected to it, aluminum is already playing a role of great importance. In wind turbines, for example, aluminum is used to reduce the overall weight of the infrastructure and to improve its efficiency. Greater lightness in the load-bearing structures, in this case, can facilitate their transport and installation, and the high resistance ensured by aluminum also guarantees certain durability over time, even in the face of particularly difficult environmental conditions to manage. In addition to wind energy, aluminum also finds concrete application spaces in the important solar energy sector, which is recording impressive growth rates in various parts of the world. In this case, aluminum is often used to produce the structures of photovoltaic panels and support frames. The lightness and resistance ensured by the material, in this case, make it particularly suitable for producing photovoltaic panels that can be installed on the roofs of buildings or inside large solar plants.

Applications related to batteries and the automotive sector

But the energy utility of aluminum is certainly not limited to the renewable energy sector: in electric vehicles, for example, aluminum is used above all for its ability to reduce the overall weight of the vehicle, a factor of great importance for the autonomy of the batteries and for the energy efficiency of the vehicle. In batteries, aluminum is often used to create cooling systems and to protect the delicate electronic components of the device. The battery sector also relies on aluminum for some uses that have nothing to do with the automotive sector: in batteries used in energy storage technologies, such as lithium-ion devices, aluminum is often used in cathodes. An interesting innovation, from this point of view, could be represented by aluminum-air batteries, on which the attention of many researchers is focused.

Future prospects

In the energy sector, aluminum could also prove very useful for some interesting future applications related to hydrogen, particularly with regard to the methods of transport of this promising energy vector. Aluminum could in fact contribute directly to the creation of some light and resistant components for the transport of hydrogen, but also for its storage.