Germany wants to become less dependent on global commodity markets. Two projects for domestic lithium production are intended to help achieve this goal.
The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE) is supporting, together with the federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse, two interrelated investment projects for domestic lithium production. The objective is to reduce the dependence of German industry on global raw material markets and to ensure the long-term supply of the strategically important battery raw material lithium.
The projects are being implemented by subsidiaries of Vulcan Energy Resources GmbH. The company, based in Karlsruhe, is developing geothermal-based methods for lithium extraction in Europe. At the sites in Landau (Rhineland-Palatinate) and Frankfurt-Höchst (Hesse), Vulcan Energy is investing a total of approximately 690 million euros. Public funding amounts to 103.6 million euros, with Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse each contributing 30 percent as co-financing.
In Landau in der Pfalz, “Natürlich Landau Lithium GmbH” is planning an innovative extraction plant in which lithium chloride will be obtained from geothermal brine. According to the company, the process is considered resource-efficient and innovative. In March 2025, the project was classified by the European Commission as strategically significant under the Critical Raw Materials Act.
In parallel, a conversion facility is being built in the Frankfurt-Höchst industrial park, where the lithium chloride produced in Landau will be further processed into lithium hydroxide monohydrate. This substance serves as a precursor for modern lithium-ion batteries.
The funding is provided through the program “Resilience and Sustainability of the Battery Cell Production Ecosystem,” which the BMWE launched in 2023 on the basis of the “Federal Guideline on Transformation Technologies.” The aim is to build capacity along the entire battery value chain.
