A plan for ‘Lithium Valley’ begins to take shape – by Katie Fehrenbacher (GreenBiz.com – October 14, 2020)

https://www.greenbiz.com/

While California is accelerating toward an electric vehicle future — in part thanks to the new gas car sales ban — it’s also got a potentially massive, and still totally untapped, EV resource in its backyard. Is that opportunity finally starting to get some attention?

That would be the valuable lithium that lies beneath the ground in the geothermal brines of the Salton Sea.

If you haven’t heard of it, the Salton Sea is a 350-square-mile, shrinking lake that’s a looming ecological disaster located a couple dozen miles south of Joshua Tree National Park.

Lithium is one of a couple of critical ingredients that make up today’s lithium-ion batteries, which power electric cars, as well as our laptops and cell phones.

A group of investors, policymakers, startups and energy providers are hoping to build a domestic battery manufacturing, mining and innovation hub around the Salton Sea’s lithium, coined “Lithium Valley.”

For the rest of this article: https://www.greenbiz.com/article/plan-lithium-valley-begins-take-shape