Mineral Requirements for China’s Energy Transition to 2060—Focus on Electricity and Transportation

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Very good and needed analysis. Well written, understandable language even for someone who is not specialist in the mineral and energy industry. Good and sufficient selection of literature sources.

I have doubts about the assumed time horizon of the forecasts. It probably results from the Chinese and global policy related to decarbonization. Past experience shows that forecasts made for such a long time do not make much sense. Too many factors change over several decades, the development of technology leads to new and unexpected solutions in industry and energy sector. Although in my opinion the work is very good.

I think - Element symbols should be written in italics for enhanced readability.

Author Response

Comment 1: I have doubts about the assumed time horizon of the forecasts. It probably results from the Chinese and global policy related to decarbonization. Past experience shows that forecasts made for such a long time do not make much sense. Too many factors change over several decades, the development of technology leads to new and unexpected solutions in industry and energy sector.

Response 1: We quite agree with you. As you said, the range of 40 years is too large and there are too many unpredictable factors, so the result is bound to be far from the actual result. We chose 2021-2060 as the study period, mainly because of China's proposed 2060 carbon neutral target. At present, many scholars are very interested in the issues related to China's carbon neutrality goal. They analyze the path to achieve the carbon neutrality goal from different perspectives. Many studies predict a huge increase in China's renewable energy installations in the future. The purpose of our study is to explore possible resource bottlenecks in China's large-scale development of renewable energy under the current technological level, so as to formulate resource assurance strategies in advance. Although technology will continue to develop in the future, in this paper, we want to provide a direction for policy formulation from the perspective of resource supply security, and perhaps indirectly promote the development of related technologies.

 

Comment 2: I think - Element symbols should be written in italics for enhanced readability.

Response 2: We think this is a good suggestion. In the resubmitted manuscript, we have changed all the element symbols in the text into italics according to your suggestions. Thank you for your advice.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear authors! Thank you very much for the interesting manuscript, since the problem you are considering is very relevant for all countries that are betting on technologies for the production and use of energy from renewable sources.

 

However, there are some remarks about the manuscript.Recommendation for authors are contained in a separate file.

Best Regards!

 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear Reviewer:

We are very grateful for your insightful and constructive comments. We have modified the mistakes you pointed out. In addition, we have made specific explanations for other comments in the document.

Thank you！

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf