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ENVIRONMENTALISTS making the case for a transition to renewable energy have often found the prevailing wind blowing in their faces. Solar and wind power have been dismissed as too expensive, too inefficient, too unreliable or too ugly. In recent years, however, the wind has changed direction. Even if these criticisms were once true, they no longer are.
But there is a counterblast that may yet force the wind to do another U-turn: green energy is very resource-hungry. Building an offshore wind plant, for example, consumes 13 times as many minerals as erecting a gas-fired power plant of equal capacity. According…
