Italvolt CEO Lars Carlstrom has formed a separate US-based business, Statevolt, to build a 54 GWh lithium battery gigafactory in Imperial Valley, California, and has signed a letter of intent to supply the lithium for the proposed facility with Controlled Thermal Resources, the firms said April 19.
“Today, there is a substantial gap in the volume of lithium needed to supply the growing demand for electric vehicles,” Carlstrom said in a statement. “We are deploying a new hyper-local business model prioritizing sustainability and resilience in the supply chain to address this challenge.”
Statevolt is currently studying the best site for the facility and when to build it. Once fully operational, its battery production will be enough to power about 650,000 electric vehicles a year.
Carlstrom (the founder of Italvolt, which is developing a battery gigafactory in Italy, is also the founder of Britishvolt, which is developing a battery gigafactory in the UK).
Statevolt said its project team and Carlstrom have industry knowledge, gigafactory design experience, and established project partners that will contribute to the California development plans.
Under the initial deal, CTR will deliver lithium and geothermal power from its planned Hell's Kitchen project near California's Salton Sea.
“We anticipate that this model will provide Statevolt with a competitive edge in mass-producing lithium-ion batteries to satisfy surging consumer demand and generate high-paying, skilled jobs,” Carlstrom said.
Local sourcing of lithium and power will reduce environmental impact from battery production and create a more secure supply chain while encouraging growth of a microindustry in the region, Statevolt said.
“The unprecedented growth in electric vehicle adoption and the emerging demand for energy storage systems to deliver clean power make it imperative that a strong and secure battery supply chain be established in the United States,” CTR Chief Executive Rod Colwell said in the statement. “In response to this unprecedented demand, CTR is continuing to develop and scale its considerable resource, and we are excited to be working with Statevolt as we ramp up these efforts.”
In 2021, CTR struck a deal (USD 200M+ investment) with automaker General Motors that has resulted in lithium delivery to GM for its EV (Electric Vehicle) battery production.
At the Hell's Kitchen project, a closed-loop, direct extraction process will be used to extract lithium from geothermal brine. The initial stage of development is slated to deliver 20,000 mt/year of lithium hydroxide by 2024, but has a total estimated resource capacity of 300,000 mt/year on a lithium carbonate equivalent basis, according to the company's website.
