BATTERIESCan California’s Lithium Valley Power the EV Revolution?

Published 22 February 2022

The Salton Sea geothermal field in California potentially holds enough lithium to meet all of America’s domestic battery needs, with even enough left over to export some of it. But how much of that lithium can be extracted in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way? And how long will the resource last?

The Salton Sea geothermal field in California potentially holds enough lithium to meet all of America’s domestic battery needs, with even enough left over to export some of it. But how much of that lithium can be extracted in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way? And how long will the resource last? These are just a few of the questions that researchers hope to answer in a new project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

There are currently 11 commercial plants at the Salton Sea field producing geothermal energy, a clean, renewable form of energy in which hot fluids are pumped up from deep underground and the heat is then converted to electricity. Normally the cooled fluid would simply be reinjected underground, but the idea is to first extract the lithium from the brine before injecting it back.

With the push by California and many other states and countries to expand adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), the demand for batteries – and the lithium needed to make those batteries – will skyrocket. With nearly $1.2 million in support from DOE’s Geothermal Technologies Office, scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory(Berkeley Lab), UC Riverside, and Geologica Geothermal Group, Inc. will work together to both quantify and characterize the lithium in this hypersaline geothermal reservoir, located far beneath the surface of Earth near the Salton Sea in Imperial County.

The project is the first comprehensive scientific effort to map out California’s so-called “Lithium Valley” and attempt to gain a detailed understanding of the mineral-rich underground brine at the Salton Sea geothermal system. Using an electron microscope and other advanced analytical tools, for example, they hope to learn the mineral sources of lithium and whether the rocks will “recharge” the brine with lithium after it has been extracted from the produced fluids.

The project team will also investigate potential environmental impacts – to quantify how much water and chemical usage is needed for lithium extraction, air quality during the extraction process, and potential induced seismicity from the associated geothermal energy production.

“We are excited to fund Berkeley Lab to develop this rich and detailed analysis of the lithium resource potential at the Salton Sea. This project will provide critical insights about the subsurface that will help us secure a domestic lithium supply chain using the most environmentally responsible, data-driven pathway,” said Alexis McKittrick, Program Manager for Hydrothermal Resources in DOE’s Geothermal Technologies Office.