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Mitigation of climate change and security of supply needs are forcing fast energy transition. Wind and solar are abundant nearly everywhere, and are cheap compared to other alternatives, but they ask for electrification of transport and heating, by means of heat pumps and batteries. Also, decarbonisation of high temperature processes and feedstocks for industry will need hydrogen and hydrogen-based fuels. While technoeconomically such transition is straightforward and viable, socio-politically it may cause some disturbances. Also, waste amounts of some previously rarely used materials will be needed. Lithium, the main material for batteries, will be oil of the future. While mobile batteries benefit from size, thus making lithium indispensable, batteries for stationary use may use different materials. On the other hand, used car batteries may get second life in stationary use, thus postponing recycling of lithium and increasing its demand. While lithium is quite abundant in Earth's crust, the necessary ramp up of its production is epic. Other materials in lithium batteries, like cobalt or nickel, may be replaced by iron and phosphorus, or many other combinations. Rare earths needed for wind power and electric vehicles, neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and, to a lesser extent, cerium, europium, gadolinium, lanthanum, terbium and yttrium, are also reasonably abundant, but their production is currently concentrated in small number of countries. While there will be enough materials for energy transition, there will be bad bottlenecks on the way, and it is crucial to start removing them as soon as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]