Full Title: Building Lithium Valley: Opportunities and Challenges Ahead for Developing California’s Battery Manufacturing Ecosystem
Author(s): Ken Alston, Mikela Waldman, Julie Blunden, Rebecca Lee, Alina Epriman
Publisher(s): New Energy Nexus
Publication Date: October 6, 2020
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
Developing lithium from the Salton Sea in California can help anchor a multi-billion dollar domestic electric vehicle battery supply chain and inject thousands of jobs and billions of dollars into California’s Imperial Valley, one of the state’s most economically disadvantaged regions. That’s the finding of Building Lithium Valley: Opportunities and Challenges Ahead for Developing California’s Battery Manufacturing Ecosystem, a report from New Energy Nexus released today.
The new report details how recovering lithium – the foundation mineral for battery production – as a byproduct from the Salton Sea geothermal resource area can kickstart a clean economic recovery for California in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, while helping ensure the state grows its own economy and meeting the recent executive order from Gov. Gavin Newsom requiring all new cars and passenger trucks sold in the state to be zero-emission by 2035.