One of the three energy companies with plans to extract lithium from deep beneath the Salton Sea is shifting its focus to generating power for the booming artificial intelligence industry.
Late last month, Controlled Thermal Resources (CTR) said they were planning to build six new geothermal power plants on the north end of Imperial County. Eventually, the California-based company said they hope to offer 600 megawatts of energy — enough to power around 500,000 U.S. households — for large-scale data centers.
The announcement is one of the clearest indicators yet of the challenges facing Imperial County’s emerging lithium industry as it struggles to get off the ground.
One of those challenges is the dimming excitement around lithium itself, a key component in electric cars and other battery technology, in the months since Congress ended federal tax credits for electric vehicles last year. That's according to Chris Benner, a professor of sociology and environmental studies at UC Santa Cruz and the co-author of a book on the lithium race in Imperial County.
Other states including Nevada and Arkansas are moving more quickly to ramp up their own lithium production efforts, Benner said. CTR is facing another hurdle too: a lawsuit seeking to pause its lithium program. Two environmental justice groups are seeking a stricter environmental analysis of the company’s project in a case now before a state appeals court.
At the same time, the artificial intelligence race is driving a surge in energy demand as tech companies scramble to build more data centers — the massive computing warehouses that power AI development.
“The lithium market is not as promising as it was three, four years ago,” Benner said. “I think CTR (is) realizing the changes in the lithium market and seeing this growing market in electricity demand.”
Cleaner power for artificial intelligence
Across the country, the AI boom is raising urgent questions about how much electricity the tech industry will need and where it will come from. Energy companies are considering everything from reviving oil-fired power plants to reinvesting in nuclear reactors in order to power a new wave of large-scale data centers.
In California, data centers’ energy use doubled between 2019 and 2023 according to a report by researchers at UC Riverside and the environmental group Next 10. The report found it could double again by 2028.
CTR is trying to pitch the Salton Sea region’s geothermal reservoir as a solution.
The northern Imperial County region is home to one of the largest geothermal reservoirs in the country. The U.S. government estimates that it could produce enough electricity to power 1.7 million homes.
Geothermal energy works by pumping up natural, underground reserves of searing hot brine to generate electricity. It’s a clean, renewable power source that doesn’t produce any climate-warming gasses.
In the past, it’s been too expensive to build enough geothermal plants to take full advantage of Imperial County’s energy reserves. But Rod Colwell, CTR’s chief executive officer, is hoping that the AI boom will change that calculation.
“There’s just a massive demand for power,” he said. “So we’d be crazy not to take advantage of, again, getting back to time and timing.”
The company could potentially produce energy in the valley and ship it elsewhere. But Colwell said they’re hoping data centers will set up shop in Imperial County alongside their geothermal operations.
That arrangement, he said, would give the facilities direct access to the energy they need.
Executives say they're still committed to lithium
The announcement comes amid quietly-growing worries over the state of the lithium industry in Imperial County.
Many have high hopes that the emerging industry could bring a rush of good jobs and prosperity to a county with the highest unemployment rate in California. But none of the three companies pursuing lithium have been able to get their operations up and running yet.
Last week, Colwell acknowledged that the lithium market had become less favorable recently. He said CTR had again delayed their estimates for when they would actually be able to start extracting the mineral — this time to early 2028.
But he argued the company is still committed to their lithium operation.
“I don't think it's ever been a change of focus because the resource has always been there,” Colwell said. “All we've done is separate power from critical minerals.”
Benner thinks Colwell is telling the truth. Geothermal power, Benner points out, has always been part of CTR’s plan. The technology is a core part of how the company aims to reach the region’s lithium reserves, which are dissolved in the geothermal brine underground.
CTR has also gotten some positive signals from the Trump administration. Last year, the federal government selected their lithium program for streamlined federal approval.
The other two energy firms in the region, BHE Renewables and EnergySource Minerals, also said they remained focused on their lithium efforts.
In an emailed statement, BHE said they were moving ahead with the early stage of their lithium project and would make a “decision on commercialization in late 2026.” EnergySource Minerals declined to answer questions, writing only that their plans “have not changed.”
Environmental advocates raise concerns
CTR’s move to supply power for AI development has sparked concerns for some environmental justice advocates.
Anahí Araiza, an organizer with the Imperial Valley Equity and Justice Coalition, worries the planned energy complex could be a “gateway” for more data centers in the future.
Data centers, she said, won’t bring the same kind of jobs and prosperity that the lithium industry could bring. The facilities typically bring mostly short-term construction work with a much smaller number of permanent roles.
“These projects are not what was promised during the Lithium Valley envisioning,” Araiza said. “The benefits that were promised are not coming to fruition.”
Benner, the professor, still believes the lithium industry could bring new well-paying jobs and prosperity to Imperial County.
But he said realizing those benefits will take a sustained focus on building other elements of the supply chain, like battery manufacturing.
“You don't get to 600 megawatts tomorrow or even next year or the year after,” Benner said. “What's going to be meaningful for the average resident of Imperial County is not the hype — it's what is the long-term potential for building out a more diverse economy.”
