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On 22 September 2020, Tesla announced at its “Battery Day” a series of technical advancements it was working on that when combined, could reduce the cost of energy storage in its homemade lithium-ion batteries by over 50%. Some of those announcements were impressive, some were surprising, some were obvious, but some were received with shock by lithium-ion battery supply chain stakeholders.

The Energy Storage & Distributed Resources Division (ESDR) announced the formation of the Thermal Energy Group earlier this month. ESDR now encompasses six groups spanning a diverse set of research areas ranging from energy conversion to grid integration, all of which are part of the Energy Technologies Area (ETA) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). The group will be led by Sumanjeet Kaur, who has guided and supported the group’s innovative research direction and growth over the last several years.

Power demand means we need new sources.

Berkeley Lab scientists to help advance lithium extraction, geothermal energy, thanks to California Energy Commission grants.

Lithium is crucial for the transition to renewables, but mining it has been environmentally costly. Now a more sustainable source of lithium has been found deep beneath our feet.

A research team led by scientists within the Energy Geosciences Division has received funding through Berkeley Lab’s Strategic Planning Support Activities and Laboratory Directed Research Development programs to work towards establishing a Lithium Resource Research and Innovation Center (LiRRIC).