Soon cars produced with carbon-free energy? The Stellantis group announced on Wednesday its desire to develop renewable geothermal energy to supply its factory in Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin). This innovation would be done within the framework of a partnership with the Australian Vulcan.
The two companies “signed a binding agreement in principle for the first phase of a geothermal development project, to decarbonize the [bouquet] efficiency of the Mulhouse industrial site”, where the DS7, the Peugeot 308 and e-308, 408 and 508 are manufactured.
Geothermal energy consists of drilling the ground and drawing heat energy from it for heating or electricity production. “This is one of the many solutions we are exploring to achieve our goal of carbon neutrality by 2038,” says Arnaud Deboeuf, Industrial Director of Stellantis.
Vulcan is also looking to decarbonize lithium production. The start-up is at the head of the largest European lithium extraction project, launched in November 2022, “Zero carbon lithium”, which is located in the upper Rhine valley, in Germany and France. She wants to use lithium-rich geothermal waters to extract this key component of electric car batteries.
Already a similar partnership at Opel
Vulcan has submitted a request for exploration of the subsoil “in the brine deposit of the upper Rhine valley”, in the Mulhouse sector. The first part of the project aims to study the feasibility of the geothermal installation. Vulcan will jointly assess “lithium production potential”. If the feasibility studies are conclusive, the project will be developed “on a 50-50 basis”.
In January, the two companies signed a similar partnership for the power supply of the Opel plant in Rüsselsheim, Germany. In 2021, they signed an agreement to supply Stellantis with lithium hydroxide.