JULY 2016 FORBES ASIA | 17Big dig: Greenbushes mine in Western
Australia, jointly owned by China’s
Sichuan Tianqi Lithium Industries and
Albemarle of the U.S., is the world’s
biggest source of lithium.
sector is growing at 15% to 20% a
year, off a low base,” he adds. “And
then you have energy storage for grid
efficiency and also commercial and
residential solar [electricity storage],
but that sector is in its infancy, and
growth rates could be explosive as
battery costs come down and elec-
tricity utilities focus on increasing
the efficiency of the grid.”
The falling cost of lithium-ion bat-
teries is helping drive demand, with
Albemarle estimating that the rate of
decline has been around 14% a year
for the past 15 years.