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| (Courtesy Simbol Materials) |
The Energy Department is very excited about its California lithium project piggybacked onto a geothermal power plant, and with good reason. Lithium is the key ingredient in innumerable electronic devices, from portable gear on up to EVs and large scale lithium-ion energy storage systems.
The problem is — or has been, until now — that the US does not have much of a domestic lithium supply.
Wherever US energy policy may go under the incoming Trump Administration, if the President-elect is serious about bringing manufacturing back to the US he’ll have to demonstrate a bit more of a forward-looking strategy than bribing US companies to keep a few hundred jobs here and there, let alone create new jobs. The geothermal-lithium angle could be just the ticket.