USGS science supports the low-carbon energy transition infographic

Our science is supporting the low-carbon energy transition.

Low carbon energy infrastructure requires minerals. -> Our minerals mapping and science are essential for understanding mineral availability and supply chains. -> Mineral availability will impact how we structure a low-carbon energy economy. -> Our energy resource science explores potential avenues for reducing the demand for minerals required by low-carbon energy technologies. 

Examples of our research:

• Mapping helps identify future mineral and energy resources
• We study whether minerals like lithium might be recovered from energy production waste streams
• Mineral resource assessments and supply chain analyses tell us the availability of minerals critical to low-carbon energy technologies like wind turbines
• We study underground energy storage and whether it could reduce demand for mineral-intensive energy technologies like Li-ion batteries
• We assess the capacity for long term carbon dioxide storage beneath the ground
• Energy resource assessments evaluate future low-carbon energy resources, like geothermal

For more information, visit the Supporting the Low-Carbon Energy Transition | U.S. Geological Survey page.