Electric vehicles are in demand and so are e-car batteries across the world. Mostly, 80% of the batteries are imported from Australia and South America. Now Germany is going to break the barrier and move forward with their production of e-car batteries.
Lithium demand is not just due to electric cars but also in smartphones, laptops, and headphones. The Upper Rhine Graben’s thermal water contains thousands of tons of lithium that are not in use. One of the Karlsruhe- based start-ups Vulcan Energie raised the necessary fund to build five geothermal power plants.
According to Vulcan CEO Horst Kreuter, almost 16 million tons of lithium carbonate equivalent can change the scenario for Germany. The raw extracted lithium will be transported to a central refinery and then it will be converted into lithium hydroxide. It will be later on delivered to the battery and automotive factories across Europe.
According to the news portal Euractiv, “Vulcan Energy plans to extract 40,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide from the Upper Rhine Valley by 2025. That would be enough to supply batteries for about a million cars per year. Once the planned plants are operational, Vulcan Energy could supply 100 percent of the battery industry in Germany or 25 percent of expected demand in Europe”. Kreuter said.
“Studies have shown that 30 percent of this area alone would put Germany in third place among lithium producers worldwide,” explains the geologist and Vulcan boss in an interview with the business magazine Handelsblatt. “And we could use that in Europe as one of the largest customers.”
Well, the more relevant and useful lithium resources can be found, the demand and supply can be brought to a balance. As well as scarcity can be kept under control resulting in controlling the price of the final product.