Rare earths, according to Time Ecocentric blogger Krista Mahr, are "a collection of 17 not-so-rare elements used to manufacture different parts of hybrid cars, mobile phones, missiles and wind turbines." Ever the industry leader, China jumped into the business of digging up and trading these minerals 20 years ago, when technologies like iPads, flat screen TVs and EVs existed more in the realm of the conceptual. And "as other global players gradually left the dirty, expensive industry," China came to dominate, currently producing over 90 per cent of the global market, which has been growing by about 8-11 per cent annually over the last decade, according to the WTO.

And now, after an incident last month wherein a Chinese fishing captain was arrested after his boat collided with the Japanese Coast Guard, shipments of Chinese rare earths have started to dry up at over 30 different Japanese companies – a phenomenon China puts down to the mysterious workings of market forces. Unsurprisingly, says Mahr, this has made those who were already unhappy about China's policy on rare earths – Beijing imposed quotas and taxes on their export in 1996 – "really unhappy." 

So, while Japan considers taking its complaint to the WTO, researchers are working on developing new materials that could either replace rare earths or decrease the world's dependence on them, says Adam Aston in Technology Review. Take the induction motor used by Tesla in its all-electric Roadster, he says. "It uses electromagnets rather than permanent rare-earth magnets" – although this makes the motors larger and heavier than its rare-earth using competitors. In Japan, a week after the China dust-up began, a research team announced they had developed a rare-earth free hybrid motor, while Hitachi announced similar efforts. BMW's Mini E EV uses induction motors, and Toyota's upcoming electric RAV 4 will be using Tesla's drive trains, says Aston.

In the US, a surge of funding has been directed at developing permanent magnets that use less, if any, rare earths. In one such project, University of Nebraska researchers are working to enhance permanent magnets made with an alloy iron and cobalt, or FeCo, by "doping" the structural matrix of these alloys with traces of other elements, thereby creating  stronger, more durable permanent magnetic materials, says Aston. And at the University of Delaware, researchers are advancing nanocomposites that use far less rare earths, but could, theoretically, be twice as powerful as today's best permanent magnets. GE Global Research in New York is also in on the game, pursuing similar nanocomposite goals as Delaware.

On yer bike!

GigaOm's latest Green Overdrive video features Saul Griffith – the extremely engaging expat Australian inventor/entrepreneur and MacArthur fellow – showing off his new electric bicycle project: Onya Cycles. Griffith and his team at Other Lab have built a series of heavy-lifting electric bikes designed to replace the car for the "70-ish per cent" of the local trips people make that are less than about 35kms. Griffith tells Giga Om's Katie Fehrenbacher that the inspiration for the project was as simple as, "the electric bikes that we want to exist in the world don't exist, so let's build 'em." And buld them they did, coming up with three models, including a tilting electric tricycle (called the "Front-End Loader"), the "Mule" long-tail cargo bike, and the "ET". The bikes can get about 1500 miles per gallon equivalent, can carry extra loads of up to about 70kg, go at speeds of up-to 30kph and for trips under 20kms, says Griffith, they can end up being quicker than a car.

As for the design, Griffith says the team went with 20 inch BMX wheels because they're stronger, more stable and help deliver higher torque for going up hills. But the real novelty in the design, he says, is in the steering mechanism, which ensures that the weight of the bike moves with the rider, allowing him/her to lean into the steering while turning corners, without upsetting the bike or its load – "be it your kid or your groceries." To do this was a tremendous amount of work, says Griffith, requiring the team to write 7000 lines of their own simulator and optimisation code. The bikes are still in test phase at the moment, but judging by the footage at the end of the interview, they fare pretty well on the hilly streets of San Fancisco. We want one.

Cheap and cheerful

Speaking of rare earths, Swiss solar equipment manufacturing giant Oerlikon Solar might be another example of a company benefiting from its independence of the China-dominated minerals, having announced this week that solar manufacturers could make the company's amorphous silicon thin film modules for less than 70 cents per watt. That's some 6 cents per watt less than First Solar, the current low-cost leader at producing thin film having broken through the $US1 a watt price barrier last year. Silicon is both more widely available and more sustainable than typical thin film solar, which contains rare earth minerals, says Susan Kraemer on Cleantechnica.

"Their new equipment to mass-produce thin film silicon solar modules lowers costs by making it possible to use thinner layers of silicon, reducing material costs, and it uses more reflective back sheets that can capture stray electrons escaping around the edges otherwise; increasing efficiency." These changes, says Kraemer, have reduced capital expenditure for Oerlikon's customers by 25 per cent, although the panels have almost half the efficiency level of top-of-the-range traditional solar. But considering this technology can be painted or printed directly on glass, plastic and other cheap construction materials, she adds, it's "not the great flaw you might think." But Oerlikon is a way off stealing the low-cost crown from First Solar, says Kraemer – its solar panel technology "won’t be producing power in a field or on a roof till 2012."

The smart money

In case you missed it last week, GE announced the purchase of Australia-based smart grid player Opal Software. This is a move "that expands the company’s smart grid software portfolio but also gives GE a pathway into the lucrative Chinese market by having a presence in the Asia-Pacific region," says Iris Kuo in GreenBeat. The Canberra-based Opal also gives GE "a platform from which to test products in a developed country with a supportive stance on clean energy while building ties within Asia," she says, which is an interesting take on the state of play in Australia's, ahem, nascent clean tech industry. Perhaps comments from the Australian Trade Commission's Paul Adler are more on the money: "Many view Australia as a stepping stone into the big pie ...Australia is a fantastic incubator,” he is quoted as saying in Greentech Media.

Other cleantech companies doing stuff Down Under, says Kuo, include building management systems startup Building IQ; smart grid outfit Grid Net, which has teamed up with Energy Australia; and Aurora Algae, which plans to open a pilot plant in Oz.