Consider This from NPR - Interest In Electric Vehicles Is Growing, And So Is The Demand For Lithium

Episode Date: December 20, 2022

The Inflation Reduction Act signed into law by President Biden this year includes incentives for buying an electric vehicle, ideally to persuade people to ditch cars that run on gasoline and switch to EVs.And as interest in electric vehicles grows, so is the demand for lithium - a key component of electric vehicle batteries.One way to get more lithium is to open new mines — which could pose various environmental concerns.But as NPR's Camila Domonoske reports, new mines aren't the only option.In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University performs breakthrough research every year, making discoveries that improve human health, combat climate change, and move society forward. More at iu.edu forward. Transportation is the biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., which is why there continues to be a push to get drivers to ditch cars that run on gasoline and switch to electric vehicles. From Bolt to Blazer, Equinox to Silverado, Chevy EVs are for everyone, everywhere. And it's not just Chevy or Tesla. In fact, sometimes it seems like everyone is jumping into the EV market. Ladies and gentlemen, our takeover of General Motors is complete.

Dr. Evil, we now possess GM's revolutionary Ultium EV platform. Now we can reduce tailpipe emissions. I'm sorry, am I no longer Dr. Evil? I'm Dr. Good now? I didn't get the meme ad. Climate change is arguably the number one threat to the world now. The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Biden this year, includes incentives for buying an electric vehicle. But who or what EV models qualify is complicated. There are income caps for buyers.

The vehicles have to be assembled in America. And there are rules about where the batteries and minerals used in the car come from as well. But the big idea here is to eventually make electric cars more affordable for more Americans, and also to encourage car companies to make more EVs in the U.S. Meanwhile, interest is growing among consumers, especially younger ones. Studies show that people under 40 are more likely to want to go electric. So next, we want you to meet someone who is way younger than 40. Avi. And I'm Rog.

That's Avi Aaron and his dad, Rog. A few years ago, Rog was driving when Avi, then in preschool, piped up from the backseat. He said, is this a Tesla? And I said, no, it's a Camry. Next, Avi asked his dad if it was electric. I said, nope, it's a Camry, and, Avi asked his dad if it was electric. I said, nope, it's a Camry and it uses gas. That wasn't the end of the conversation. Kevin asked me, like, shouldn't we drive an electric car? Why don't we drive an electric car?

Avi is seven now. And OK, he will not be driving anytime soon. But think about this. Little Avi will most likely be driving in 2035 when states like California and New York will start requiring all new vehicles to be zero emission. Gives you a sense for where the market for EVs might be headed. As for Avi's family right now, they bought a new car. A Polestar. Polestar. That's a Volvo spinoff. And it's an electric car. So yeah, interest in electric vehicles is on the rise, but consider

this. As the demand for electric cars goes up, so does the need for the materials needed to make them. Like lithium, a key component of EV batteries. We'll hear about the challenges that that entails. From NPR, I'm Juana Summers. It's and C's apply. It's Consider This from NPR. As automakers put more and more resources into making electric vehicles, the demand for a key battery component, lithium, is outpacing the current supply. One solution is to open new mines, but that can be damaging to the environment and controversial. Opening new mines, though, is not the only option.

NPR's Camila Dominovsky takes it from here. Halfway between Reno and Las Vegas, there's a dry lake bed over the bones of an ancient volcano. Down a gravel road and past a security checkpoint stretch a series of Caribbean blue ponds. They're filled with brine, a mixture of water and salt and lithium. This is one of the first pumps where brine comes in and gets pumped into here. This is where the process starts. Julian Ortiz is leading journalists on a tour of Silver Peak Lithium Mine. A century ago, this was home to a traditional old school silver mine with men tunneling into the hills for ore. But today, it's probably not what you're picturing when you think of a mine.

There's no giant pit, no dark tunnels, just these pools of brine pumped up from underground to a series of ponds. It's quiet. In fact, it's not the easiest scene to capture for audio. Just sitting underneath this very intense sun, and the water is evaporating. For 50 years, workers here have used the power of the sun to concentrate the lithium inside this brine. It wasn't a high-profile mine, because lithium wasn't a high-profile mineral.

It went to glassmaking, or bipolar medication, or industrial lubricants. But lithium particles can do a pretty cool trick. They can move back and forth between the positive and negative end of a battery, releasing and storing energy as they go, over and over again. That's what makes a lithium-ion battery work. And those batteries are crucial for the fight against climate change. All that means this old mine has new energy. In the past year, lithium has tripled in value. Battery manufacturers are desperate for

more of it. So miners here are pumping more brine and getting more lithium out of every drop. All told, Silver Peak is doubling production. That still doesn't make it a huge mine, as these things go. Just here in Nevada, there are proposed lithium mines that would be much larger. But one of those mines threatens a rare wildflower. Another has prompted intense local opposition. Silver Peak doesn't have those controversies. It's a lot easier to boost production at a mine that already exists than to start a new one. Of course, it still can't happen overnight. It can take up to two years for a molecule of lithium to make it from that first pond to the packaging plant. We pump the brine off of the last pond out there. It goes into a couple of holding tanks. That's Brad Earhart, the head of maintenance at the mine.

Inside an old mill from back when this was a silver mine, they take that brine and add a chemical that reacts with the lithium to make a white powdery substance. They dry that out and blow it into giant white bags. Each weighs one ton. This is the stuff that battery makers are so desperate to buy. If I tasted it, would it have a taste? I'm not going to taste it. Tastes a little bit like lemons. Like lemons? I like it. Would it have a taste? I'm not going to taste it. It tastes a little bit like lemons. Like lemons? I like it. Yeah, he was pulling my leg. But let's run with this.

Imagine that you're a lemon farmer and the world suddenly wants a lot more lemonade. The price of lemons, say, triples. And it's going to take time for the world to plant more lemon trees. What do you do? You sell every single lemon you possibly can, right? You squeeze out every drop of juice. That's what Silver Peak is doing. And not just Silver Peak. Big mines in South Africa, Argentina, and Australia are ramping up output quickly. Susan Zhou is a senior analyst with Reistat Energy. Actually, in the past six months,

we have been already quite surprised to see how fast those existing projects have responded to the lithium price hikes. And they're making a lot of money in the process. Albemarle, the mining giant that owns Silver Peak, just had its best quarter ever. Talk about turning lemons into lemonade. Boosting output at existing mines is the obvious way to make more lithium. But it's not the only way. There's lithium in the brine used at geothermal power plants. Lots of companies are

trying to figure out how to extract that lithium at a profit. And there's a magnesium mine in the U.S. that was making lithium as a waste byproduct. They're selling it now. That's kind of like finding a giant stash of lemons in a trash heap. Kwasi Ampufu is the head of metals and mining at Bloomberg and EF. There's something interesting about higher prices. It incentivizes everything. Back at Silver Peak Mine, a van drove to the top of a pile of salt as big as a hill. This is salt that was scraped out of these evaporation ponds, left over as part of the lithium mining process. It was a crunchy and oddly sparkly setting for an interview.

Karen Narwald is the chief administration officer of Albemarle, the company that owns this mine. She says better technology is going to help companies meet this growing demand for lithium. We're all looking at additional ways to get more. Aside from squeezing everything it can out of mines like Silver Peak, Albemarle is also making plans to reopen a big old lithium mine in North Carolina. That's a rock mine, not a brine mine like this, and it's been closed for years. But it was an operating mine back pre-1980s. And reopening a mine? It's an easier lift than launching a brand new one. Albemarle will also start recycling old batteries for lithium. And then remember how some companies are finding lithium in the trash heap? That could even happen here. There's a theory that the salt that comes out of these ponds can also be re-harvested.

Turns out that giant hill of salt we were sitting on top of, it's full of traces of lithium. Now, existing mines and shut down mines and trash heaps, all of that can only go so far. To meet projected long-term demand for lithium, analysts say the world will still need new mines. And that means hard conversations about where and how to build them responsibly. But as those conversations unfold, the fight against climate change isn't waiting to hear how they pan out. The global race to make more lithium, it's already underway.

That was NPR reporter Camila Dominovsky. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Juana Summers. This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University drives discovery, innovation, and creative endeavors to solve some of society's greatest challenges. Groundbreaking investments in neuroscience, climate change, Alzheimer's research, and cybersecurity mean IU sets new standards to move the world forward, unlocking cures and solutions that lead to a better future for all. More at iu.edu forward.