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> California Energy Commission’s estimate that the Salton Sea area could produce 600,000 tons of lithium per year, which is amazing since the entire world’s ind
by fnord77 5y ago
> California Energy Commission’s estimate that the Salton Sea area could produce 600,000 tons of lithium per year, which is amazing since the entire world’s industry produced a mere 85,000 tons of lithium in all of 2019.
- hallway_monitor 5y agoThis seems suspiciously high. Even 60,000 tons would almost double the global supply. I would be surprised if this turns out to be accurate.
- selectodude 5y ago“Could” and “will do so very shortly” aren’t mutually exclusive.
- Robotbeat 5y agoLithium is not actually rare. I think this is a big source of continuing confusion in discussions on battery-electric electric vehicles (of all types: bikes, cars, trucks, buses, vans, airplanes, ships, trains, etc) and renewable energy (grid storage). Production capacity equals demand, roughly. That should not be surprising as production capacity costs money and you don't invest in more production capacity than you have demand. Proven reserves ALSO are some fairly low multiple of demand, for related reasons.
- AtlasBarfed 5y agoCobalt however.... To a lesser degree Nickel is being stressed as well. It's why LFP chemistry is so important. If that can handle mainstream use cases (commuter cars, medium range busses/trucking, etc) then BEV scaling to the entire economy becomes a lot more feasible.
- danans 5y agoLFP is well suited for stationary applications, since its energy density isn't as high as LiIon. I know Tesla uses it in some of their non-US EVs, but those are pretty range limited. The battery system on my house uses LFP cells. They're also extremely thermally stable, and don't require any cooling systems.
- pfdietz 5y agoLFP's lower energy density is at least partially made up for by its higher packing density. Other Li-ion chemistries need "firewalls" to prevent catastrophic propagation of thermal failure, but LFP cells can be packed tightly without such barriers.
- Robotbeat 5y agoIt’s fine for 250 miles range entry level electric cars. That’s equivalent to top of the line 5-10 years ago. Barely qualifies for “pretty range limited.”
- twobitshifter 5y agoIt’s 20,000 tons in stage 1 which is still huge. https://investingnews.com/company-profiles/controlled-thermal-resources-lithium-and-renewable-energy/ https://investingnews.com/company-profiles/controlled-therma... Hell’s Kitchen is expected to have a minimum 30 year life. Stage 1 of production is slated to begin in 2023, with a 20,000 tonnes per annum lithium hydroxide facility along with the generation of 49.9 megawatts of renewable energy from the integrated geothermal power plant.
- nickik 5y agoAnd there is about 99% change they will not reach that. The amount of Lithium projects that have not reached there targets in the last decade is amazing. Even the expansion plans of the 'big' lithium producers have been massively delayed. There has never been a single geothermal lithium project that was actually successful.
- coenhyde 5y agoyeah but for how long? 10 years? 30? 1?
- manquer 5y agoThe estimated reserves in SSGF(salton sea geothermal field) is 15 million metric tones[1]. Assuming the estimates are somewhat reliable at their projected annual draw it is 30 years worth. It is also to be noted that neither is the annual global demand close to that yet nor is the technology mature enough to extract that quantum yet so probably 50-60 years actual life time of the field which is not atypical for fields for other resources. Also estimate is fore 600,000 tones of lithium carbonate not pure lithium. [1] https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2020/08/05/geothermal-brines-could-propel-californias-green-economy/ https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2020/08/05/geothermal-brines-coul...
- coenhyde 5y agoA nice little reserve then!
- twobitshifter 5y agoClose - 2023 https://investingnews.com/company-profiles/controlled-thermal-resources-lithium-and-renewable-energy/ https://investingnews.com/company-profiles/controlled-therma... Controlled Thermal Resources anticipates commencement of commercial production at Hell’s Kitchen in 2023. The production of geothermal power at Hell’s Kitchen provides CTR the ability to participate in California’s growing renewable energy market. In January 2020, CTR announced it had entered into a 25 year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Imperial Irrigation District (IID), the largest irrigation district in North America and the sixth-largest electrical utility in California. With the assistance of its project engineering partner Hatch Ltd., Controlled Thermal Resources completed its Canadian National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101) Technical Report, and the accompanying Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA). CTR has initiated a Prefeasibility Study (PFS) and commenced well pad construction in anticipation of drilling its first two geothermal wells.
- manquer 5y agoThe report says 600,000 tons lithium carbonate [1] per year. Given that Li(2)CO(3) is the molecular structure of lithium carbonate and 14:12:48 is the molar mass ratio. Therefore there is no more than 1/5 of that in actual lithium so about 120,000 tones. Still larger than today's world consumption but not as unrelastically high I guess. [1] https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2020/08/05/geothermal-brines-could-propel-californias-green-economy/ https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2020/08/05/geothermal-brines-coul...
- fogof 5y agoThis explains why later in the article it says the mine could produce 40% of the world’s lithium.