“In Search of ‘Lithium Valley’: Why Energy Companies See Riches in the California Desert.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 27 Sept. 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/27/salton-sea-california-lithium-mining.
Within the article, it shows the positive “ time of transition”. We’ll never see it again in our lifetime, this green transition – it’s very cool to be part of it” (Colwell). Inside the depths of California’s “Lithium Valley,” there are many materials that will benefit the United States’ transition to clean energy and the increase in EVs that run off lithium batteries. It states that we mostly get our materials from foreign countries, so therefore we should take this risk. There are two options: restoring the body of water in which the valley formed, however, due to fertilizer runoff and evaporation, it is hard to maintain; or building a lithium and geothermal plant. There are plans to build a $520 billion plant that creates geothermal energy, selling most of the energy created while also using some to mine for lithium.
This creation of a geothermal plant and a lithium mine is a great mix of two aspects that will mitigate carbon emissions and help climate change. A geothermal plant is meant to produce fewer emissions than a fossil fuel plant; by extracting heat from the ground, a non-renewable resource they can create enough energy to power their lithium mines and then some. This extra energy will be sold as an alternative to fossil fuel energy. Also the mining of lithium supports the use of EVs that will also decrease fossil fuel use. Lithium is the main part of an electric car’s battery and by finding this source, the US can stock up for the expected 40x increase of production within the next 20 years. I believe that this is the future of power plants; using many different kinds of non-renewable resources to work together to create less emissions could be the best way to deal with the global problem of climate change. EVs alone might possibly not be able to prevent carbon emissions, but the benefits of this combination is a start.
I also found this article to be enlightening because it shows how the cost of doing this was worth it in the end. It shows how sometimes money isn’t always the most important thing because it might help in the long run. When do you think the economy should interfere with helping the environment, when is it too expensive?
thanks for reading my post
I agree with you that this is a positive change in the way that the US won’t necessarily be reliant on other countries, but mining lithium itself is a very unsustainable practice. What are the possible environmental risks if this plant is built? How will it affect local plants and wildlife?