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Domestic lithium production is vital to decarbonizing the economy and achieving President Biden’s climate goals. The Salton Sea region of California could produce over 3,400 kilotons of lithium according to this DOE-funded study, enough to support over 375 million batteries for electric vehicles. On Jan. 26, developer Controlled Thermal Resources broke ground on the region’s newest geothermal power plant which, when complete, will be the first in the country that also extracts lithium from geothermal brines. These geothermal facilities by the Salton Sea may prove to be among the most important energy projects of the 21st century.
EERE’s Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO) just invested $4.75 million in the new Academic Center for Reliability and Resilience of Offshore Wind, or ARROW. This center will focus on targeted research, partnerships, and strategies to embed equity in offshore wind development and advance the next generation of offshore wind workers.
WETO, in collaboration with Innovation Fund Denmark, also intends to release a $4.2 million funding opportunity to make wide-scale deployment of floating offshore wind energy systems more cost-effective. This international effort focuses on research to improve mooring technologies and methods that secure floating platforms to the sea floor. They intend to release this funding opportunity in the spring, so stay tuned for more updates!
Located in California’s East Bay area, the city of Fremont has long been a leader in solar-friendly policies, seeing solar deployment double in the last four years. As of this year, Fremont is the first-ever local government to earn Platinum designation from DOE’s national recognition and technical assistance program, SolSmart, which acknowledges local governments for prioritizing solar energy in their communities. This new Platinum-level designation requires, among other criteria, that communities adopt a platform like EERE’s SolarApp+ that automates residential solar permitting for local governments.
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