(California) California Energy Commission grants for geothermal and lithium recovery projects

The California Energy Commission has been tasked with leading the state to transition to 100% renewable energy. To do so, on 13 May 2020, the commission announced several grants to projects working on geothermal energy, as well as those surveying lithium reserves in the state. A total of approximately 10 million dollars were granted and distributed among these projects.

Lithium development projects received 7.8 million dollars.  BHER Minerals, LLC, a company developing a cost-effective process to extract lithium from brine at geothermal power facilities received 6 million dollars. Part of this development will be a demonstration project at a geothermal power facility in Calipatria that will process the brine into battery-grade lithium carbonate.

A second lithium development project received 1.8 million dollars. This project will be developed by Materials Research LLC in Palo Alto, CA, and will focus on the demonstration of new technologies. One will extract lithium from brine, and the other will form high-purity lithium carbonate.

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