With the rapid development of clean energy technologies, various bottlenecks on supplies of related critical materials emerged. Since supply chains of critical materials often involved with multiple layers of markets with different characteristics, to better identify bottlenecks and increase critical material availability, it is vital to have better understanding and projection on these markets.
Agent-based modeling is a bottom-up approach that can imitate heterogenous objects in a changing environment. Therefore, it is an excellent tool to simulate markets with fierce competition and fast revolution. This work demonstrates the application of agent-based modeling by discussing three different topics related to critical material demand and supply induced by clean energy products.
The first application focused on LED residential lighting market. LED lighting market grew rapidly and introduced potential demand on several critical materials including indium. The work modeled consumers as heterogenous and irrational agents in network purchasing new bulbs based