There is an important consequence of the Taliban’s resurgence in Afghanistan that has gone underreported: This regime now controls the nation’s massive deposits of rare earth elements and critical minerals.
These coveted resources, such as the lithium that some are banking on to fuel the global transition to clean energy, could be worth $1 trillion. And China is making a serious play to access them. Every energy transition and climate model calls for more grid-scale energy storage, and lithium-ion batteries are the fastest-growing storage technology around the planet.
Scaling up energy storage is an absolute necessity for America’s clean energy future. To get there, we can continue the status quo, moving forward on lithium-ion batteries with materials from places such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Afghanistan. Or we can choose a second, clearer path: pursuing energy innovation that liberates us from relying on hostile regimes for crucial supply chains.
Lithium-ion batteries, no doubt, will remain a big part of our lives since we use them in cellphones, laptops, and electric vehicles. But as we increase variable renewable resources such as wind and solar in our energy grid, we will need long-duration, grid-scale storage to provide power and ensure reliability when the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing. Supply chains dominated by China have already created challenges, and we haven’t even scratched the surface of critical mineral demands for grid-scale batteries.
There are other technologies that provide grid-scale storage, but the leading technology, in terms of investment, is lithium-ion batteries. That is largely because the price has come down by 90%. The problem, however, is where we get the raw materials to make them.
In 2010, a Department of Defense memo dubbed Afghanistan “the Saudi Arabia of lithium.” Many lithium-ion batteries also use cobalt, and over 65% of global production is concentrated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. China controls 70% of the capacity to convert cobalt ore into cobalt chemicals for the battery industry, giving it additional control of the supply chain.
Afghanistan is appealing to China because its copious resources have yet to be extracted, and it could take decades to do so. China already has a monopoly on solar panel manufacturing, subsidized by forced labor, and it is threatening to make many countries reliant on Chinese supply chains for lithium.
The United States has lithium deposits, but there are few operations to extract them and develop a robust domestic supply chain. Without innovation, the importing-only status quo won’t work.
The good news is that innovators are exploring solutions to source lithium domestically but also get beyond lithium-ion batteries for grid-scale storage.
Lilac Solutions is a U.S. company developing technology to make extraction more efficient or to combine efforts with another clean energy source, such as the geothermal energy plants near the Salton Sea in southeastern California, where lithium is being extracted from the geothermal brine.
Pumped storage hydropower, or as we call it, “America’s energy storage workhorse,” is another promising solution. The U.S. has 21,000 megawatts of pumped storage, which is equivalent to the power demand of more than 16.7 million households. It’s also 95% of the current storage capacity in the U.S., and it doesn’t rely on imported minerals. But on the grand scale, especially as we increase variable renewables, we will need a heck of a lot more capacity.
To start, innovators such as the Goldendale Energy Storage Project have proposed a 2,100-megawatt pumped storage project in Washington. Quidnet Energy is developing a grid-scale, long-duration storage technology called geomechanical pumped storage that combines traditional techniques with repurposing drilling, well construction, and old fossil fuel assets. The Cat Creek Energy and Water Project is an additional promising development. It is a prospective 1,000-megawatt “tribrid” pumped storage, solar, and wind project near Mountain Home, Idaho.
Another innovation to get beyond lithium-ion is using plentiful domestic resources, such as iron, air, and water, to make long-duration, grid-scale batteries. Form Energy made a breakthrough this summer in iron-air batteries.
This iron-air battery has several advantages over lithium-ion battery technology. The latter works best for shorter-term storage that lasts hours. Iron-air batteries could offer storage for almost a week. Also, lithium-ion batteries are very cheap now, but at scale, iron-air batteries could provide energy storage for a tenth of the cost, according to Form Energy’s estimate. Iron is also found in the U.S. and in many of our friendly trading partner countries, avoiding supply chain hazards.
The story of U.S. innovation is also one of energy independence and security. We have seen this story with the shale revolution, in which innovation in the oil and gas sector granted the U.S. independence and we became a net exporter. It was innovation in the past that freed America from energy dependence on the Middle East, and it is poised to do so again with energy storage.
Sure, we need lithium-ion batteries in our everyday lives. But we cannot solely rely on them to support the grid. The solution here is a deeply American one: innovate our way to affordable new technology that can be exported around the world, helping both our economy and the environment.
Rich Powell leads ClearPath, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization that develops and advances conservative policies that accelerate clean energy innovation.
