Issue 5: Imperial County green-lights SDSU science and tech campus
STEM classes could be offered as early as Fall 2022 but a fully equipped lab building may be years away.
Fresh this Week
Cracking Down on Lithium Misinformation
Politifact this week rated a Facebook Post as false when it claimed that President Joe Biden is trying to buy more lithium from China. As previously reported in this newsletter, the Biden administration is currently making investments in procuring more lithium on U.S. land so that it may reduce its dependence on mineral imports from other countries, like China. | Source: Politifact
This isn’t the first or the only instance of misinformation spreading about lithium on social media. In some instances, troll social media accounts claim that lithium extraction in the Salton Sea will result in a further deterioration of the drying lake, which is false.
Scientists Lists Potential Lithium Extraction Harms
Previously we have seen scientists tout the minimal environmental impact as a result of lithium extraction from geothermal brine, but one Cal Poly Pomona anthropologist says otherwise.
James Blair told KCET that, while lithium recovery from geothermal brine is far more environmentally friendly than pit mining methods used in other countries, the process at the Salton Sea still poses some environmental impacts. | Source: KCET
Among those:
Protecting Indigenous ancestral lands.
Concerns about air quality, as plants emit pollutants like hydrogen sulfide, ammonia and fine particles.
Devoting precious land and water resources to lithium extraction amid the crisis of the rapidly shrinking Salton Sea, which is causing habitat loss and toxic air pollution in the area.
Lithium Is Helping Geothermal Energy’s Profile
Geothermal energy has always been the forgotten child of green energy production in California. But perhaps that may change soon thanks to lithium.
Two top scientists, Michael McKibben and Bryant Jones, wrote a piece in The Conversation in which it argues that geothermal energy might become the new green energy darling of the state thanks to new technologies that make lithium extraction more feasible and profitable for private companies.
“Adding the production of critical metals like lithium, manganese and zinc from geothermal brines could provide geothermal electrical power operators a new competitive advantage and help get geothermal onto the policy agenda,” they write. | Source: The Conversation
Automakers in the Lithium Extraction Business
Some of the biggest benefactors of lithium extraction around the globe are automakers who are seeing a ravaging demand for electric vehicles. Lithium is a key ingredient to lithium-ion batteries that power the high-performing electric vehicles in high demand.
So, who are the automakers securing lithium around the world? Here’s a short list. | Source: Reuters
Tesla: Core Lithium will supply the automaker up to 110,000 dry metric tons of Spodumene concentrate, a chief source of lithium, over four years out of Australia.
Tesla: China-based Ganfeng Lithium Co. is set to also supply battery-grade lithium to the automaker for three years starting 2022.
Volkswagen: Vulcan Energy Resources will give lithium hydroxide out of Germany to the automaker for five years starting in 2026.
Stellantis: Vulcan Energy Resources is also providing between 81,000 and 99,000 tons of battery-grade lithium hydroxide to the automaker from geothermal plants in Germany starting in 2026.
Renault: Vulcan Energy Resources will supply 26,000 to 32,000 metric tons of battery-grade lithium chemicals for six years starting 2026.
General Motors: Controlled Thermal Resources will begin supplying lithium to the automaker out of the Salton Sea geothermal region by mid-2024.
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Between the Lines
SDSU Gets OK from Imperial County to Build STEM Lab
San Diego State University, which is headquartered in San Diego, is about to have a bigger presence in the Imperial Valley. The four-year university already has two campus locations in Imperial County — one in Calexico and one in the outskirts of Brawley (pictured above).
This week, the Imperial County Board of Supervisors made official its support to have SDSU build a 65,000-square-foot science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) teaching and research facility at its Brawley campus.
What this means is that, at some point in the near future, SDSU will be able to offer a range of four-year degree science and technology programs in the Imperial Valley, something that’s never been offered in the region before.
Driving SDSU’s expansion of STEM degrees in the Imperial Valley is the accelerating development of lithium extraction out of the Salton Sea geothermal region, which is only a 30-minute drive north of Brawley. Three companies are already at various stages of procuring lithium from geothermal brine but commercial level production is still a few years away.
When asked when SDSU would break ground to build its new STEM facility, Cory Marshall, SDSU Director of Media Relations, told me there was no additional information at this time.
However, Brittany Santos-Derieg, chief of staff for SDSU President Adela de la Torre, says it is already investing $15 million in the renovation of its existing campus in Brawley and in hiring additional faculty. Of that investment, $9 million is going into lab, classroom equipment and faculty for new nursing programs and a new public health minor beginning in the Fall 2022.
Imperial Valley College, which is the only community college in Imperial County, is said to also have plans to offer similar programs in the near future but no official word has come down from the college.
Repeated emails to IVC have gone unanswered so it’s unclear if or when those programs will be offered.
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