Minerals like lithium, cobalt, graphite are essential to manufacturing solar panels, wind turbines,electric car batteries and other low-carbon technologies. and many more. The growth of the low-carbon energy sector has driven an increase in demand for many of these minerals.

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Our science is essential for planning how to supply the minerals needed to build a low-carbon energy economy. 

Our USGS Mineral Resources Program is mapping and assessing minerals critical to low-carbon energy technologies across the United States and the globe. We are identifying mineral resources both below the ground and above the ground in mine wastes and mining waste streams. 

We also provide supply chain science to illuminate the paths that minerals travel from production, to use and disposal. 

Our USGS Energy Resources Program is studying the potential for co-producing energy and minerals, such as recovering minerals like lithium during petroleum and geothermal production.

Our science also explores potential avenues for reducing the demand for minerals required by low-carbon energy technologies. 

For instance, could renewable geologic energy resources – like geothermal energy or geologic hydrogen– reduce the need for new solar panels and wind turbines?

USGS Energy Resources Program assessments of these resources are key to informing decisions about what mix of low-carbon energy resources are developed. We are also at the forefront of understanding geologic energy storage, which could also reduce the need for additional batteries and other mineral-intensive energy technology. Geologic carbon sequestration, which has the potential to reduce greenhouse gases released by traditional energy production, is another focus of our science. 

Building a low-carbon energy economy will require putting together many puzzle pieces – from what minerals we can source, to what energy resources we can develop, and how efficiently we can use mineral and energy resources. Our science is helping make sense of these puzzle pieces, and how they could fit together. 

Specific geologic processes form different energy and mineral resources. 

For instance, geologic hydrogen gas can form when certain iron-rich rocks react with groundwater. Petroleum resources, like coal or oil, form in places where ancient organic matter has been placed under geologic heat and pressure. The Earth’s geology, mineral resources and energy resources are inextricably linked. 

We study geologic processes and collect data about the Earth’s geology, topography, chemistry, and magnetic and radioactive properties. 

This information provides a foundation for understanding geologic processes and predicting where energy and mineral resources might occur – and how they interact with each other.  

We study the mechanics, capacity for, and implications of storing carbon dioxide deep underground.

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We study two primary potential mechanisms of carbon dioxide sequestration:

1.  The first is called carbon dioxide storage and involves pressurizing CO2 into a liquid and injecting it into porous sedimentary rock formations below the Earth.

    

2.  The second is called carbon mineralization and involves reacting carbon dioxide with igneous or metamorphic rocks, “locking” carbon into rock.

    

We have conducted a nation-wide assessment of carbon dioxide storage. We have also assessed the national capacity for carbon-dioxide enhanced oil production. This is a technique that involves pumping carbon dioxide into oil wells that are “drying up” to increase oil production. When this technique is used, some carbon dioxide remains sequestered belowground. 

The Earth, like a battery, is able to store energy. 

There are three broad categories of energy storage: chemical storage (energy is stored in chemical bonds), mechanical storage (energy is stored using materials or fluids) and thermal storage (energy is stored as a temperature difference). All three can be used to store energy underground. 

Rocks below the Earth’s surface have cracks, fissures and spaces that can be filled with gases like hydrogen, or fluids with thermal energy (ie. that are hot or cold). When energy is needed, the gases or fluids can be extracted and used to generate electricity, or heat and cool buildings. 

Because current renewable energy sources sometimes produce variable power supplies, geologic energy storage could play an important role in the low-carbon energy transition. For instance, excess energy produced by solar panels or wind turbines could be used to produce hydrogen gas or to heat water. These could be stored belowground until energy demand rises, days or months later. 

We are studying the mechanics, capacity and implications of underground energy storage. 

One active line of research is using our understanding of geothermal systems to assess the potential for storing thermal energy in different geologic settings. We are also currently assessing how much space might be available below the Nation’s surface to store energy resources like natural gas or hydrogen.