Why lithium
ČEZ is one of the most important investors in the Ústí nad Labem Region. Severočeské doly, one of the most important ČEZ Group companies, is based here, we do business here and we care about the quality of life in our region. The Czech Republic will experience growth in renewable energy sources in order to free us of our dependence on fossil fuel imports and thus increase our energy security and independence. Renewable resources will be created here in the Ústí nad Labem Region on the land of our mines and on the sites of former coal-fired power plants. In addition to batteries for electric vehicles, our lithium will also be used in batteries for renewable energy sources.
Ivo Pěgřímek
General Director of Severočeské doly from ČEZ Group
Lithium is the lightest metal, is very soft and occurs in nature in various compounds.
Lithium is also used for purposes other than batteries. For example, it can remove heat from nuclear reactors. Much of the lithium is used in the ceramics and glass industries. It is also used in the production of some medicines and is found in pacemakers too. It is also used in the aerospace industry, with a lithium battery being used, for example, by the Curiosity rover, which operates on Mars.
Thanks to lithium, Li-ion batteries have properties that make them ideal for energy storage. Their main advantages are that they have a long service life, they do not suffer from self-discharge and they offer high capacity combined with low volume and weight.
So-called lithium-ion batteries (li-ion for short) already power mobile phones, power tools, medical devices, laptops and tablets. The use of lithium will increase significantly in the near future thanks to the further development of electric vehicles and renewable energy sources.
This revolution is already gradually occurring. Lithium batteries are already being used by Czech households to store electricity from rooftop photovoltaic power plants. And the demand for these storage facilities will continue to grow, along with the increase in production and growing use of lithium.
Lithium is the lightest of all metals and we will therefore soon be using it in our electric car batteries on a large scale, because the lighter the battery, the lower the consumption of the electric car, and so lithium is in high demand from electric car manufacturers.
Li-ion batteries in large-scale energy storage will allow us to consume energy from emission-free photovoltaic and wind power plants even when these sources are not generating. Lithium is already being used in a battery built at the Tušimice power plant in Ústí nad Labem Region.
ČEZ is a long-term major investor in the Ústí nad Labem Region and wants to keep as much value as possible from lithium production here.
Electromobility is the future of the Czech automotive industry, and so the inhabitants of local municipalities and the Ústí nad Labem Region will in the future be able to drive to work or to visit their loved ones in cars powered by energy stored in batteries made from lithium extracted at Cínovec. At the same time, we are working on a project for a battery factory, a so-called gigafactory, to be built in Prunéřov near Chomutov. It is to this gigafactory that the lithium produced at Cínovec would primarily go.
By combining the lithium park and the gigafactory, the Ústí nad Labem Region and the Czech Republic have a unique opportunity to build a completely new, technologically advanced industry linked to the widely developed automotive industry, which has a long tradition in our country and is essential for our economy.