With the greatest and most urgent energy transition in human history clearly accelerating, the quest for new technology solutions across multiple and increasingly diverse low carbon fronts is becoming ever more important.
Lithium miners are bulking up for a booming future when electric cars go mainstream. But speed bumps loom, with prices tumbling on a burst of new production and demand growth slowing in China.
Satellites detecting changes in trees from space could help identify potential "hotspots" of lithium situated underground in Cornwall, researchers have said.
The rise of electric vehicles and the quest to find solutions to energy storage for the renewables industry have created a breeding ground for tech experts to develop battery technologies.
After more than tripling in price this year, Lithium is no longer that dull commodity we take for granted in our consumer electronics: It's the commodity powering the next, undeniable energy revolution. The tight supply picture emerging as electric cars, mega-batteries and massive energy storage solutions become the cornerstones of our lives could be on the edge of turning new lithium explorers into the next barons.
We've gone electric, and there's no going back at this point. Lithium is our new fuel, but like fossil fuels, the reserves we're currently tapping into are finite—and that's what investors can take to the bank.
Just a few years ago, we would have scoffed at the idea that electric vehicles could be mainstream anytime soon, or that the global appetite for lithium-ion batteries and mass power storage would be so voracious, and so sudden. Today, no one is scoffing, and lithium is being viewed as our new super-mineral that will catapult us firmly into the next century.