Near Southern California’s dying Salton Sea, a canopy next to a geothermal power plant covers large vats of salty water left behind after super-hot liquid is drilled from deep underground to run steam turbines. The vats connect to tubes that spit out what looks like dishwater, but it’s lithium, a critical component of rechargeable batteries and the newest hope for economic revival in the depressed region. Demand for electric vehicles has shifted investments into high gear to extract lithium from brine, salty water that has been overlooked and pumped back underground since the region’s first geothermal plant opened in 1982.
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Lithium fuels hopes for revival on California’s largest lake
