The Power Plant That Also Makes Battery-Grade Lithium
Geothermal power plants extract heat from deep saline aquifers and hydrothermal reservoirs by pumping the hot brine to the surface, running it through heat exchangers or steam turbines to generate electricity, and re-injecting the cooled brine into the reservoir to maintain the resource. The brine that circulates through these systems is not simply hot water but a complex mineral solution whose dissolved lithium, manganese, potassium, zinc, and other elements reflect the geochemical environment of the deep reservoir from which it is extracted. In the Salton Sea Known Geothermal Resource Area in California's Imperial Valley, where the continental rift geology and the high geothermal gradient create brine temperatures above 300 degrees Celsius and lithium concentrations of approximately 400 parts per million in the circulating geothermal fluid, the geothermal power industry has operated for decades while injecting the lithium-rich brine back into the ground without capturing its mineral content. The estimated lithium resource in the Salton Sea geothermal brines, whose volume flowing through the existing and potential geothermal power facilities in the area represents a lithium resource whose extraction would provide a significant fraction of US domestic lithium demand for battery manufacturing, has positioned the Imperial Valley as the potential site of the largest domestic US lithium production development outside of conventional hard rock and brine mining operations.
The direct lithium extraction from geothermal brine market, valued at approximately $520 million in 2026 and growing at over thirty-five percent annually as the first commercial demonstration plants validate the technology at production scale, encompasses the DLE technology companies, geothermal power operators pursuing lithium co-production, and the battery material supply chain investors whose strategic interest in US domestic lithium supply has created the venture and project finance capital that commercial-scale DLE demonstration requires. The DLE technology for geothermal brines applies selective sorbent or membrane-based lithium extraction that captures lithium from the flowing geothermal brine as it passes through the extraction system before re-injection, producing a lithium-enriched solution whose further processing through evaporation, purification, and precipitation yields the battery-grade lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide that EV battery manufacturers require.
Controlled Thermal Resources and the Hell's Kitchen Project
Controlled Thermal Resources, the Australian-US geothermal energy and lithium company, has advanced its Hell's Kitchen Geothermal and Lithium project in Calipatria, California to the development phase whose Phase 1 target of 300 megawatts of geothermal electricity generation and 20,000 tonnes per year of lithium hydroxide production represents the commercial demonstration of co-production economics that validates or refutes the lithium-plus-power revenue model on which the project's investment case rests. Its strategic investment from GM Ventures, whose battery supply chain security interest in US domestic lithium makes it the natural early-stage investor in Hell's Kitchen's potential lithium output, and the California Energy Commission support for the project whose domestic clean energy and critical mineral production objectives align with the Hell's Kitchen project's outputs create the commercial and policy backing that large capital project development in the current interest rate and permitting environment requires. EnergySource Minerals, the US direct lithium extraction company whose Lithium Extraction Pilot Plant at the existing EnergySource Geothermal power facility in El Centro California has demonstrated battery-grade lithium carbonate production from the Salton Sea geothermal brine, is the further-advanced operational demonstration that has produced the first commercial-quality lithium product from Salton Sea geothermal brine rather than a laboratory simulation of the brine chemistry.
Lithium de France, the French geothermal lithium company, is developing the lithium extraction capability from the Alsace region's geothermal brines whose lithium concentration of approximately 160 to 200 parts per million is lower than the Salton Sea brine but whose geographic proximity to the European battery manufacturing capacity that Stellantis, Volkswagen Group, and Renault are building in France and Germany creates the European domestic lithium supply value proposition that makes lower-grade brine economics viable when the transport cost, customs duty, and supply security premium of lithium imports from South America and Australia are included in the total delivered cost comparison. Its partnership with Électricité de Strasbourg for the geothermal electricity and brine infrastructure and its planned 1,000 tonne per year lithium carbonate pilot plant demonstrate the European geothermal lithium development pathway whose scale and economics differ from the Californian development both in brine concentration and in the European regulatory and permitting environment.
The Battery Supply Chain Strategic Logic
The strategic rationale for geothermal lithium extraction beyond its pure extraction economics is the geographic and political supply chain diversification it provides for the battery manufacturing industry whose current lithium supply is concentrated in the South American brine triangle of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile and the Australian hard rock spodumene deposits, creating the supply chain concentration risk that the EV battery manufacturers whose 2030 production plans require secure, predictable lithium supply at scale are managing through long-term offtake agreements, strategic investments in mining projects, and political advocacy for domestic critical mineral production incentives in the US, EU, and other battery manufacturing jurisdictions.
Top 10 Companies in Geothermal Lithium and Direct Lithium Extraction Globally
- Controlled Thermal Resources (CTR): Australian-US geothermal energy and lithium company with Hell's Kitchen project targeting 300 MW and 20,000 tonnes per year lithium hydroxide; its GM Ventures investment and its California geothermal power and lithium co-production development create the most commercially advanced US geothermal lithium project whose co-production model defines the economics of integrated geothermal power and lithium extraction.
- EnergySource Minerals: US direct lithium extraction company with operational pilot plant producing battery-grade lithium carbonate from Salton Sea geothermal brine; its demonstrated battery-grade lithium product from existing geothermal infrastructure and its El Centro California operations create the operational validation that the Salton Sea geothermal lithium resource is technically extractable at commercial quality specifications.
- Lithium de France: French geothermal lithium company with Alsace region brine development and Électricité de Strasbourg partnership; its European battery supply chain proximity and its French geothermal infrastructure integration create the European geothermal lithium development whose domestic EU supply logic addresses the critical mineral supply chain dependency that EU battery regulation is creating policy pressure to resolve.
- BHE Renewables (Berkshire Hathaway Energy): US renewable energy company with existing geothermal power operations in the Salton Sea and lithium recovery pilot development; its established geothermal power infrastructure and its Berkshire Hathaway capital create the utility-scale geothermal operator whose existing brine handling infrastructure reduces the capital cost of adding lithium extraction to its operating geothermal plants.
- Eramet: French mining and metallurgy company with LiSEC DLE technology for geothermal and salar brine lithium extraction; its proprietary sorbent-based DLE process and its Centenario-Ratones project in Argentina create the European mining company whose DLE technology portfolio spans both geothermal and conventional brine applications and whose industrial scale engineering capability brings mining company project execution to the DLE market.
- Lilac Solutions: US DLE technology company with ion exchange DLE technology for geothermal and hard brine lithium extraction; its Rio Tinto strategic investment and its DLE technology deployment at multiple brine projects create the DLE technology licensor whose ion exchange approach has the most advanced commercial project deployment evidence outside of the geothermal-specific DLE companies.
- Vulcan Energy Resources: Australian geothermal lithium company with Zero Carbon Lithium project in Germany's Upper Rhine Valley using geothermal brine; its BASF and Renault offtake agreements and its European geothermal lithium hydroxide production targeting 2026 first commercial output create the European geothermal lithium developer whose offtake commitments from European automotive supply chain buyers validate the demand for European domestic geothermal lithium.
- Geolith: French geothermal lithium technology company with continuous ion exchange DLE for geothermal and oilfield brines; its French development and its DLE technology optimised for the moderate lithium concentrations of European geothermal brines create the technology company whose process parameters are engineered for the European brine conditions that differ from the higher-concentration Salton Sea and South American brine environments.
- Albemarle: US lithium company with DLE technology research and potential geothermal brine application alongside its existing hard rock and brine lithium operations; its lithium processing expertise and its interest in the Salton Sea geothermal lithium resource create the established lithium producer whose experience in lithium chemical processing could be applied to geothermal brine lithium at a scale that the geothermal-specialist startups cannot independently access.
- Standard Lithium: Canadian DLE company with LiSTR DLE technology for oilfield brine lithium extraction in Arkansas and collaboration with Equinor; its oilfield brine rather than geothermal application demonstrates the broader DLE technology applicability whose extraction principle is transferable between geothermal, oilfield, and salar brine sources, and whose Equinor backing creates the energy industry supply chain pathway for brine lithium that the geothermal industry's power-generation focus has not historically pursued.