Renewables—and especially offshore wind—are set to drive a surge in copper demand that will push prices even higher, as the amount of copper required per wind turbine is staggering, at 63,000 pounds. A week ago, the basic metal surged to a record high because of supply chain disruptions. By the end of the week, however, it had cooled off on efforts by China to rein in the commodity market rally. Now copper’s on the way up again, and this is likely to be a steady trend. The reason for this is renewable energy—and more specifically wind energy—researcher Mirela Petkova wrote for Energy Monitor in a recent article . Offshore wind turbines require 8 literal tons of copper for every megawatt of generation capacity, Petkova noted, adding, citing data from the International Energy Agency, that “An average turbine of 3.6MW, which can power more than 3,300 average EU households, will […]