Energy
Lithium May Get Much-Needed Demand Boost From Battery Storage
Brine pools at a lithium mine on the Atacama salt flat in the Atacama Desert, Chile.
Photographer: Cristobal Olivares/BloombergLithium bulls are betting on energy storage systems as the next meaningful pillar of demand for the battery metal, nudging the global market back toward balance after years of oversupply.
Giant utility-scale batteries, which absorb and store electricity for controlled release, are an increasingly important consumer of lithium. Though electric vehicles remain by far the biggest user of the metal, many analysts see demand from these storage systems rising at a faster clip than EV growth in 2026. Citigroup Inc., UBS Group Inc. and Bernstein even see that expansion helping to tip the global market into a deficit next year.