Brisbane battery maker is betting big on ‘new industrial revolution’
Brisbane businessman Rod Colwell has picked the right moment in history to enter the US renewables market and his vision is getting bigger.
CTR's Rod Colwell. (Image: Supplied)
Under President Joe Biden, the US is turning towards electric vehicles in a big way and Colwell and his company Controlled Thermal Resources claim the shift “rivals the industrial revolution”.
CTR is developing a lithium and power project in the Imperial Valley in California and recently signed a definitive offtake agreement with car manufacturer Stellantis to supply 25,000 tonnes a year of lithium hydroxide over 10 years.
It also has a letter of intent with Statevolt to supply lithium and power for a planned 54-gigawatt battery manufacturing plant in Imperial County at a cost of $US4 billion. It had previously struck a collaboration agreement with General Motors, which also took a multi-million-dollar equity stake in CTR’s project.
Another letter of intent was signed with Cars Carlstrom, the founder of battery manufacturer Italvolt and CTR was negotiating with other companies for offtake.
CTR has released a concept image showing the first four stages of a clean energy campus at its Hell’s Kitchen site. The Imperial County is also working on a master plan that could include geothermal, lithium, a solar farm, as well as cathode and battery manufacturing, battery recycling and green hydrogen production.
The project has lithium, geothermal power and rare earths and recent testing found lithium concentration 22 per cent higher than previously reported.
A 50 megawatt renewable power station is anticipated to be developed by the fourth quarter of next year and the production of the lithium to meet its contract with Stellantis was expected by 2024.
Stages two and three were expected to include 260 megawatts of renewable power and 100,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent a year.
CTR’s project on the geothermal site has a projected capacity of 1100 megawatts of baseload renewable power and 300,000 tonnes a year of lithium carbonate equivalent.
“I have never been more confident that CTR has established itself as a vital clean energy and critical minerals resource developer at a time when US domestic supply is urgently needed,” Colwell said.
