The popularity of renewable storage options has led to an increased demand for lithium mining in Australia, mainly because the metal is used when making batteries, ABC News reports.
Renewable energy storage batteries have surged in popularity in Australia this year. “We’ve had over 33,000 enquiries since the start of this year for the Tesla Powerwall,” Chris Williams, the chief executive of Powerwall reseller Natural Solar, tells the news outlet.
Williams also stressed that 12-18 months ago the company only got a couple of enquiries a month.
Some experts say that lithium’s future looks very bright, especially after rising demand forced its market price to jump up drastically over the past two years.
“We are firm believers if you roll forward 10-15 years you’ll see wholesale changes in power grids and energy storage,” ABC News quoted Stephen Wood, portfolio manager with UBS’ Smaller Companies Fund, as saying. “What lithium really does as the technology of choice, it really brings renewable energy to life.”
Currently, one of the biggest lithium producers is Australia. This is mainly because of the Sino-US Greenbushes mine, which is responsible for majority of the production in the country. The mine, located in Western Australia, also plans to more than double its production starting with 2018.
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