Los Angeles Times - Sammy Roth

Excerpt:

Those are some of the problems California faces. The Imperial Valley offers possible solutions.

The valley’s north end is home to one of the world’s strongest natural geothermal hot spots — an underground heat pocket that can be used to produce climate-friendly electricity 24 hours a day, unlike solar panels or wind turbines. There are already nearly a dozen geothermal power plants in the area, near the receding shoreline of the Salton Sea. More are planned.

The superheated underground fluid being tapped by geothermal energy companies also contains lithium — a crucial ingredient in electric vehicle batteries. It’s a resource that could help us ditch gas cars and stop fueling the climate crisis.

As the sun set over the Imperial Valley last week, I stood in the shadow of two geothermal/lithium test wells drilled by Controlled Thermal Resources. And when I say “in the shadow,” I don’t mean it literally. There was nothing to block the punishing sunlight as I chatted with Jim Turner, the company’s chief operating officer. He kept wiping sweat from his eyes.

It was just before 6 p.m. and still 108 degrees.

“Having been around here as long as I have — and having either run or built all the [geothermal] plants out here — I knew these wells were going to perform,” Turner said. “What I didn’t know was just how well they were going to perform.”

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