The Salton Sea geothermal field in California potentially holds enough lithium to meet all of America’s domestic battery needs, perhaps even with enough for export as well. But how much of that lithium can be extracted in a sustainable and environmentally
Geothermal Technologies Office
February 28, 2022
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The Salton Sea geothermal field in California potentially holds enough lithium to meet all of America’s domestic battery needs, perhaps even with enough for export as well. 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).
With the push by California and many other states and countries to expand adoption of electric vehicles, 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, 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.
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