Lithium ion batteries are an integral part of both EVs and the transition to renewable energy. EVs, for one, require a huge amount of lithium in order to manufacture car batteries capable of lasting for hundreds of miles. Renewables also rely on lithium, since lithium ion batteries are necessary for the storage of energy. Renewables like wind and solar aren’t as consistent as fossil fuels and can be affected by the weather, which is why having high capacity storage is a must for renewables. As the EV and renewable transition is underway, the demand for lithium is expected to skyrocket to 1 million metric tons by 2040, 8 times the current annual production rate.
Recently, a massive new lithium deposit has been discovered in a volcanic caldera located on the border between Oregon and Nevada called Thacker Pass. If the estimates are correct, Thacker Pass could be the world’s largest lithium deposit, at over 600 million tons of lithium, according to Jon Evans, the CEO of Lithium Americas, a lithium mining company. Other estimates put the number lower, but in any case, it is still considered to be the largest lithium reserve in the world. Thacker Pass contains large amounts of a mineral called illite which contains between 1.3% to 2.4% lithium. This is more than double the lithium concentration of the more common lithium bearing clay, magnesium smectite.
The discovery of a lithium deposit in the US is huge news for manufacturers of EVs and electronic devices because having a domestic lithium source reduces the risk of supply chain issues. This risk is most prominent for the US military, which uses lithium ion batteries in high-tech drones and weapons systems. In the case of a war, having a domestic source ensures that the US is not dependent on a potential adversary for an essential resource like lithium. Having a domestic source of lithium is also important for consumer markets, since export bans like those levied during the pandemic would not affect production of consumer products quite as much if lithium was present domestically. This also increases the US’s influence with developing nations since being able to develop an economy cleanly, without fossil fuels, requires massive amounts of lithium to power a growing economy. In the geopolitical contest between the US and China in securing the alliance of southeast Asian countries, such as those in the ASEAN economic alliance, the US gains a major advantage by being able to exert some level of control over global energy markets.
A new source of lithium isn’t just good for the US–it’s a major breakthrough that could make major change possible in terms of transitioning out of fossil fuels. The problem with renewables is not the cost of energy, as the price of wind power in most cases has fallen below that of coal or gas, rather it is a question of storage. Fossil fuels endure because the ease of access to energy afforded by being able to burn fossil fuels means that less money needs to be spent on expensive energy storing technologies. More lithium can change that, since a massive increase in global lithium reserves will bring down the cost of energy storage and thus speed up the green energy transition.
The Thacker Pass lithium mine is set to be operational by 2026. By that time, the world’s demand for lithium, an essential component of the energy transition ahead, will have expanded exponentially. A discovery as groundbreaking as the Thacker Pass lithium deposit will definitely help ease the pain of the clean transition that we will all have to face in the coming years, and the discovery surely inspires hope for a greener world in the future.