The government of Chile has formed an entity to keep a majority stake in domestic lithium production with one of the two private companies that mine it, while also setting aside land for 13GWh of downstream energy storage projects.

The president of Chile has proposed boosting state control over its lithium reserves, sending the share prices of companies involved in the extraction industry tumbling.

Despite having the largest lithium reserves in the world, Latin America (LATAM) has lagged far behind other continents when it comes to setting up lithium-ion gigafactories.

Rising demand for batteries, largely coming from the electric vehicle (EV) sector, means raw materials prices continue to be volatile.

A region of southern California desert has the potential to become the hub of a “world-class lithium industry”.

US President Joe Biden announced a “major investment in domestic production of key minerals and materials” this week, including efforts to strengthen supply chains of lithium and other materials used in batteries. 

A couple of new initiatives to support increased, sustainable production of lithium batteries for electric vehicles and for the grid have been launched by names that will likely be familiar to Energy-Storage.news readers.

The US could see new mines and raw material production “scale up” as demand for battery energy storage systems and grid resilience increases over the next decade, according to Margaret O’Riley, battery, automotive and electrification business recruitment lead for Duke Energy Corporation.

Tesla hosted its Battery Day yesterday in California before a socially-distanced audience all sat in various electric cars from the company’s range and revealed its ambitious plans for more than halving the cost of battery production.

Controlled Thermal Resources and Lilac Solutions are creating facilities for lithium extraction and chemical processing at a geothermal plant at Imperial Valley’s shallow, saline Salton Sea.