Clean energy depends on lithium. Can California supply it?
As the United States seeks to wean itself from fossil fuels, attention is turning to California and its vast reservoir of lithium – an essential component of rechargeable batteries used for electric vehicles, mobile phones, and to store energy from wind and solar power.
The world is clamoring for lithium. So much so that its price rose more than 400% in 2021. Now several companies are working to extract lithium from Southern California’s Imperial Valley. There, deep below a large shallow lake called the
