"Can't download the additional components needed to instal Mac OS X"

Here's what you need to do. You must have the computer connected to the Internet either using Wi-Fi or Ethernet.

Internet/Network Recovery of El Capitan or Later on a Clean Disk

     If possible back up your files before proceeding.

1. Restart the computer. Immediately after the chime hold down the (Command-Option-Shift-R) keys until a globe appears.
2. The Utility Menu will appear in from 5-20 minutes. Be patient.
3. Select Disk Utility and click on the Continue button.
4. When Disk Utility loads select the target drive (will be the out-dented entry) from the side list.
5. Click on the Erase button in Disk Utility's toolbar. A panel will drop down.
6. Set the partition scheme to GUID.
7. Set the Format type to APFS (SSDs only) or Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)
8. Click on the Apply button, then click on the Done button when it activates.
9. Quit Disk Utility and return to the Utility Menu.
10. Select Install OS X and click on the Continue button.

This should install the original version of macOS that came with the computer when new. You can then upgrade macOS to the current version: How to upgrade to macOS Catalina.

So I recently bought a mac mini circa 2011. I was encountering the same issue. So I thought "maybe a time machine recovery from 2012 would work" and it did! (at least for me)

if your a previous mac:

Back up time machine from 2012 on an external drive

connect it to usb port

proceed to recovery mode as mentioned above (i used wifi for the record)

then opt to recover Time Machine and select backup from 2011/2012

hope this works for you

Ok so get your Mac booted up into Recovery as explained above.

Open Disk Utility, highlight the Disk in the left column, NOT any indented Volumes.

Select Erase, give the Disk a name.

Format: Mac OS X Extended (Journaled.

Scheme: GUID Partition Map.

Click Erase.

Now try to reinstall the OS, an ethernet connection would be preferable to WiFi.

You may encounter an error 'cannot download additional packages', something like that, the reason for this is,

the certificates for several of Apples OS's expired in October 2019, Apple have been very poor at getting these updated on their Recovery Servers with valid certificates. This may be the problem you are experiencing. 

Try this workaround, we are going to set the time and date on your mac to a date previous to the expiry date of the certificates.

Boot to your Recovery HD, click on Utilities in the menubar select Terminal.

Enter a new date, for example or just copy and paste

date -u 011421002018

press Return

enter your password

press Return

Now try downloading the OS.

If this works, when the OS is installed and booted up you can Open System Preferences> Date & Time and reset the time back to today.

If/ when you get your Mac running on Mac OS X Lion then you may consider upgrading the OS.

Your 2011 model of Mac can upgrade to Mac OS X El Capitan or macOS High Sierra.

How to upgrade to OS X El Capitan – Apple Support

How to upgrade to macOS High Sierra - Apple Support

Yes so it is difficult to keep up with the different iterations of Disk Utility through the years, Disk Utility in Lion is different to later versions. Intel based macs use the GUID partition scheme as default. In Lion Disk Utility to set the partition scheme we go through the partition selector. If you want to try to Erase the disk using the Partition button you can try that.

Open Disk Utility, select the Disk again and select Partition, under Partition Layout select 1 Partition.

Under Partition Information give it a name, and then make sure it is MacOS Extended (Journaled)

Click on Options and select GUID Partition Table, click OK. Click Apply.

After you have re partitioned the Disk you can try the date trick again, make sure your mac is connected via a

cabled connection, not WiFi. See if you can get the OS installed again.

But if you look through the various other posts in this Lion forum you will see that almost everyone else who is trying to

reinstall via internet recovery are experiencing the same problems as you,

So I don't really know what is going on with Apple here, it used to be a lot easier than this. They have been informed of the problems people are experiencing, so we will have to wait and see if they do anything about it.

I followed the instructions below; there is no drop down panel upon selecting erase menu; there is no option to select GUID for a partition scheme. I still cannot get pas this: "Can't download the additional components needed to install Mac OS X."

Each step in the installation ended with this error. I tried installing both from a DVD disc and from the Internet. None of this works. I already decided to give my computer for repair to a service company, but in the end I tried to install the system from a flash drive. Thank god I could!

Download DMG image OS X. Use software "TransMac" for Windows to prepare your boot flash drive and write DMG OS X image file.

Then boot in Recovery mode from Internet, open DiskUtil and select "Boot from Image". After it your Mac will show your flash drive for boot.

Did you ever get this solved? I'm having the same issue.