ASSESSMENTS

Lithium: Powering a Global Revolution

Oct 20, 2017 | 13:59 GMT

Demand for lithium-ion battery technology is expected to keep growing.

Demand for lithium-ion battery technology is expected to keep growing, and at a rate that will soon outpace current lithium production.

(Stratfor)

Editor's Note

At Stratfor, we use geopolitics to break down the constraints and advantages that geography confers on a country and the political, technological and economic decisions it compels. The exercise, taken to its logical conclusion, can extend all the way down to an atomic level. This occasional series examines the elements and the power that various combinations of protons, neutrons and electrons can exert on the world around us. In the third installment, we look at lithium.

The world is slowly breaking its dependence on fossil fuels. Global policy, along with economic considerations and technological developments, has helped to usher in a new era in which oil will have lost its prominence as the world diversifies its energy sources. Although that day is still at least a decade away, the transition is in progress. And batteries are leading the charge. Today, lithium-ion batteries are the gold standard in battery technology. Demand for the technology is expected to keep growing, and at a rate that will soon outpace current lithium production. The world's lithium resources are almost certainly adequate to satisfy the rising demand for the material. Whether production can keep up, however, will depend on the handful of countries that are poised to dominate the global supply of the world's lightest metal....

Keep Reading

Register to read three free articles

Proceed to sign up

Register Now

Already have an account?

Sign In