enough chinese dominance on the solar photovoltaic market is something that an international alliance wants to change. we'll get a word from our correspondent on how i'm chris kolber. welcome to the program. electric mobility is to do the trick, keeping us going without destroying our climate. now you as president joe biden has unveiled his strategy to boost battery production for electric vehicles, announcing $2800000000.00 in grants. to 20 companies for projects, extract and process lithium graphite and other on materials to manufacturer components, and strengthen your supply of critical minerals, boosting production and sales of electric vehicles. as a key part of the guidance strategy, shift to a slow climate change and build up where you as manufacturing some see a challenge. but we see an opportunity, a real opportunity to shift to

a net 0 sum carbon world. and one of the most significant economic transitions since industrial revolution mass not i personally, that's a fact. or also confronting it, head on with american ingenuity and american jobs. years president joe vine speaking there and on germany is fully underway, amid its own transition to wards electric mobility and having sufficient supplies of critical materials like lithium is key, nearly found reserves within the country could now help break a so far heavy dependence on foreign suppliers lou here, the so called white gold and the green energy transition lies dormant. large amounts of lithium are needed for batteries to power e cars. but lithium can be found in the hot thermal water of the upper rine river, 4000 meters under ground. the german branch of australia's vulcan energy

resources wants to extract the lithium from the thermal waters in an environmentally friendly way. in a lab in karlsruhe, the team has developed a process to hopefully extract the lithium on an industrial scale. now since my father, in the 1st 2 faces, we could supply up to 40000 tons of lithium hydroxide for about 1000000 immobility batteries. after that, we can keep expanding. we believe we can meet 25 percent of european demand in the long term and supply all german production with it in order to transport these mineral rich thermal waters up from the depths, the company relies on geothermal energy, 160 degree hot water is pumped up via bore holes and used to generate electricity to power the extraction. it's climate neutral, but there's a catch in the past, geothermal drilling has repeatedly caused earthquakes. in a worst case scenario,

drilling could pollute the ground water. some lithium extraction projects in the region have already been halted for many experts. however, this is going too far. they say with modern technology, thermal water can be found in the deep rock, where tapping comes with no risk. high precision geo sensors can also help ensure that drilling has stopped before it causes damage the longest back to like 200 or visit 8 mining authority is very careful and strict govern. of course, no one can guarantee that no further earthquakes will be triggered, but we are sure that we can put enough measures in place to prevent that from the lithium mining with geothermal energy could be a big opportunity for the energy transition. but vulcan energy has its work cut out,

trying to convince residents in the region that the extraction is safe. now, so far, australia and chili account for 75 percent of global lithium production, germany and the european union traditionally have good relations with these countries. so delivery problems are unlikely. the situation is somewhat different for other raw materials though. the imports 90 percent of rare earth and magnesium it uses from china. rare earth elements are crucial and running smartphones, wind turbines, and electric vehicles. supplies could dry up quickly in case of a conflict with china, like over taiwan or other matters. and metals like nickel and aluminum, the e continues to import from russia despite the war and ukraine. because you officially know european industries depend on these materials. earlier i spoke to micah shelter, a researcher on sustainable commodity supply chains at the german institute for

international and security affairs. and i asked her how germany and the you could lore their dependence on russia and china. but recommendation would be a to 1st increased knowledge about men of a supply chains and dependency and increased transparency at the finished supply chains and definitely of european and german level and needs a stronger like china strategies that considers dependencies and establishes instruments add to degrees, but also a frame, it's and diplomatically, quite important step is to find their possible, but also consider substitution as well as m recycle, increase recycling capacity. and yeah, as the notice in our research that righty itself, supply it. yep. tail ability play quite an important role and accuracy connected needs to be considered in political strategies. micah, how is it that a china has been tightening its grip on the global market for rare earth?

how's that possible? i think it's an yeah, political strategy if that's add a follow to the last ad 2 decades of video so you can see it ab year by year to increased air refining capacity in the, in the country. yeah. so it, as it gets, it gets quite a astro political move they did in order to execute such and yeah, refining capacity. and you mentioned it there. i mean, it's not just a getting these rare materials or materials out of the ground is also a matter of refining them. and that is something which is very hard on the environment. experts say, and richer economies prefer to off load these dirty tasks to china. so how is the you going to deal with that? if it doesn't want to import these things from china, from russia? yeah, i think it did strongly like refining capacity this in the european union, definitely strongly european core collaboration because it meets high investment in,

into refining and building up refining capacities. and it's not a short term solution, but am to long term investment that needs to be done down and left to get everything the member's id. make sure the of the german institute for international and security affairs. thank you for your thoughts. china has not only dominating the rare earths market is also home to more than 80 percent of the world solar production capacities. to change that i'm at a growing demand for less expensive energy. we're leaders are meeting at the international solar align summit in new delhi in india, they're pushing to diversify supply chains and manufacturing of solar panels. over $100.00 countries are represented at the meeting, sharing a common goal, have a listen. we go have the goal of ensuring solar as the energy source of choice across the world. this means it is cheaper.

it is useful to politicians as a way to create new jobs. and it also helps us in moving towards the goal of 0 carbon emissions with our la i assa. our objective is to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy. and this is not only i calamity parity, but the so, so they still energy independence and the energy security put on for more on the sleds. bring in the w correspondent, char mccarty, k and delhi charo leaders gather, gathered there, and deli, are pushing to diversify supply chains and manufacturing of the solar market. how's that supposed to happen? well yeah, chris, that's right. they're trying to diversify the supply chain because even though it is not said in as many words, the biggest problem that the international solar lines faces is the dominance of the global solar market by china. and the fact that china dominates is,

would be an understatement. you know, the international energy agency believes that 75 percent of companies that are needed for solar powered and manufactured in china alone. so that's like a big, big dominance. now what the i say is planning is that it wants to make go enable multiple regions across the world to be able to produce affordable solar products. now that is easier said than done, you know, in spite of all the progress that has been achieved in solar, in many parts of the world including india, sola is pretty much a nascent movement and a lot of things are in the future. so a lot of things out of the planning stage are, for example, investment is a big problem. capacity building is a big problem. land is a big problem. so i, you see, is working on all those competence and just trying to bring many countries together in that effort. chris, now how does the international solar lions want to correct the balance in investment flow and solar will. yeah, that's again, a grand project of the i as

a chris a, the investment flows are heavily disproportional. you know, reports suggest that in 2021, the global investment close in solar were to the tune of $200000000000.00. and only 5 percent of these were received by countries like africa, where the potential is maximum to 95 percent of $200000000.00 went to oil, cb countries, china and all you see the country. so the countries that really need to the potential offer need and have of producing herb of cheap affordable solar power or not getting much of the investment flows. what the ice implants do is that it is, it is trying to roll out a payment mechanism where in the icy will in act as a sort of a payment guarantee for lenders who would want to invest in projects in these countries. and then it would also go into a capacitor building and so on and so forth. so that's what the plan looks like as of now, chris. now india is facing its own problems when it comes to expanding

a renewable energy is a solar farms require a lot of land. you mentioned it there, which locals often want to use for their own purposes with as to chris of but a fact. and one is that right now most of the solar plans have been operate or have been set up on government land. so right now, this is not too much of a dispute. land is really a land related complaints are sort of pre sporadic. but then many experts say that they will definitely of rise as the country improves its solar install capacity. so all these, the government owned lands that are be converted into solar plans. they are used in some way or the other by local communities and are pretty soon when the target for the install capacity goes up. and then things will reach of the marks or a market will reach to private land as well. and land has always been a very critical problem. we are, things are still on the planning stage as far as the,

the future or issues that might crop up in land or concern. right now it's pretty sporadic. i would say chris t w's charo car to gain daily charo. thank you. and his reminder of the top of business story we're following for you at the sour. the united states is investing almost $3000000000.00 to boost battery production for electric vehicles with a special focus on extracting and processing, lithium and other raw materials. trying to break it's dependency on china. that social, thanks with

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subscribe to d w documentary on youtube. oh, this is dw news live from berlin, more political chaos in the u. k. as the prime minister announces, she's stepping down off the just 6 weeks list. ross says she's resigning as leader of the conservative party or that she'll stay on as prime minister until a success says also on the program keith tells you.