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The metal in the brine that could stock LA's batteries

The same wells that make geothermal power in Imperial County pump up brine full of dissolved lithium. California says it could stock the batteries LA's grid now leans on, and here is how close that has actually gotten.

BY THE RENEWABLE ENERGY LA EDITORS · FILED NOVEMBER 4, 2026 · 6 MIN READ ·

The reader's situation

On a bright afternoon in the LA basin, rooftop panels and the big desert solar farms that feed the city often make more power than anyone can use at that hour. A lot of that midday surplus now goes into batteries, which hand it back after sundown when the grid tightens. The lithium inside those batteries almost all comes from far away, from hard-rock mines in Australia and salt flats in South America. About 150 miles southeast of downtown, at the south end of the Salton Sea, the state says some of it could instead come from here.

The idea is specific, and it is older than the current battery boom. Geothermal wells already running in Imperial County pump up hot underground saltwater (brine) that is loaded with dissolved minerals, and that brine carries lithium. Pull the lithium out as a co-product of making electricity, the thinking goes, and you get battery metal from wells that are spinning turbines anyway.

We are reading this as a supply-chain story, not a generation one. The question for a ratepayer is narrow: could the batteries the grid now leans on be filled with metal from California's own desert, and how close is that, really, against what the state has claimed?

How the metal rides up with the power

Start with the plant that already exists. At the Salton Sea geothermal field, operators drill into a very hot, very salty reservoir, flash the brine to steam to turn a turbine, then reinject the spent fluid back underground. That loop has made power in Imperial County for decades. Lithium extraction bolts onto it: before the brine goes back down, a step called direct lithium extraction (pulling the metal straight out of the fluid, rather than evaporating it in ponds) skims the lithium off.

What makes it appealing is that the hard part, moving millions of gallons of scalding brine, is already paid for by the power business. Backers argue this uses far less land and water than open-pit mining or the evaporation ponds used in Chile. That case is plausible and still unproven at full scale, which is the whole story here.

The honest math on how close this is

On paper the resource is large. A federally funded analysis in 2023 estimated the Salton Sea reservoir holds lithium on the order of millions of tons, enough in theory to supply a very large number of electric-vehicle and grid batteries. That is a resource estimate, not a production number, and the two are a long way apart.

Actual output today is close to nothing: the projects are in demonstration and early-build phases, not commercial flow. Timelines have slipped more than once, which is normal for first-of-a-kind chemical plants and worth saying plainly. Treat any single-year target you see as a hope, not a schedule, until a plant is shipping battery-grade material it can sell.

Who is drilling, and what LA actually buys

Three names do most of the work. Controlled Thermal Resources is building a phased power-and-lithium project it calls Hell's Kitchen; EnergySource Minerals has advanced a lithium project of its own; and BHE Renewables, part of Berkshire Hathaway's energy arm, runs much of the existing geothermal fleet and has tested lithium recovery on it. All three are chasing the same brine.

For Los Angeles, the link is indirect. LADWP and the wider California grid run by the system operator (CAISO) now lean on a battery fleet on the order of 13,000 megawatts statewide at last public report, charged by midday solar. None of that metal is local yet. Whether it ever is depends on these Imperial County plants clearing the gap between a good resource and a working, sellable supply.

Worth watching this month

1. Check the California Energy Commission's Lithium Valley pages for new project filings or permit updates, the most direct public read on whether any plant is moving from plan to build.

2. Watch for any follow-up from the state's Lithium Valley Commission, the body created by law in 2020 that issued its main report in late 2022; new output from it is not routine and would signal something changed.

3. Track Controlled Thermal Resources' own project updates for a firm date on first commercial lithium, and treat another slip as the base case, not a surprise.

4. Look at Imperial County's lithium extraction tax reporting for the first real per-ton volumes, which would be the first hard sign that metal is actually flowing.

Where this dispatch reads

California Energy Commission, Lithium Valley (state agency, .gov), www.energy.ca.gov/programs-and-topics/programs/lithium-valley, The state's own program pages on Salton Sea lithium, with project and permitting updates you can check directly.
Lithium Valley Commission (state commission, .gov), www.energy.ca.gov/about/campaigns/lithium-valley-commission, The body created by state law to study extraction; its report lays out the official claims and caveats.
U.S. Department of Energy, Geothermal Technologies Office (.gov), www.energy.gov/eere/geothermal/geothermal-technologies-office, Federal work on Salton Sea geothermal and the lithium resource estimate, so you can see the figure and how it is hedged.
California ISO, Today's Outlook (grid operator), www.caiso.com/todays-outlook, The grid operator's live view of the battery fleet charging and discharging, to check the storage numbers yourself.
Controlled Thermal Resources, Hell's Kitchen (project developer), www.cthermal.com, The developer's own project page, useful for its stated phases and timelines, read as targets and not guarantees.
BHE Renewables, Imperial Valley geothermal (operator), www.bherenewables.com, The operator running much of the existing Salton Sea geothermal fleet and testing lithium recovery on it.

Questions readers have asked

Is any of this lithium in LA's grid batteries yet?

No, not in any real amount at last public report. The extraction projects are still in demonstration or early construction, so the batteries on the grid today are filled with imported metal.

Is 'Lithium Valley' a company?

No. It is a nickname for the Salton Sea region and also the name of a state commission that studied extraction there. No single firm owns it.

Why pull lithium from brine instead of mining it?

The brine is already being pumped to make geothermal power, so lithium can come up as a co-product. Backers say that uses less land and water than hard-rock mines or evaporation ponds, though the method is not yet proven at full commercial scale.

Would this lower my electric bill?

Not directly, and not soon. A local lithium supply could help battery and grid costs over many years, but it would not show up as a line item on your LADWP statement.