Controlled Thermal Resources

Controlled Thermal Resources was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in the Imperial Valley of California, one of the world's most concentrated deposits of geothermal and lithium brine resources. The company is led by CEO Rod Colwell and is developing its flagship Hell's Kitchen project, an integrated geothermal power and lithium extraction facility at the Salton Sea Known Geothermal Resource Area (KGRA) in southern California. The Imperial Valley sits atop a geologically unique resource: high-temperature hydrothermal brines that are exceptionally rich in dissolved lithium. CTR's integrated project design extracts both thermal energy and lithium from the same brine in a single operation, positioning Hell's Kitchen at the intersection of two of America's most pressing clean energy priorities.

CTR was founded to develop the Salton Sea's massive geothermal-lithium potential, which had been identified for decades but never commercialized at scale due to the complexity of combining power generation with mineral extraction in a single facility. The company's vision is to supply both clean baseload electricity and battery-grade lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) from one integrated resource — the same brine that generates steam for power turbines will undergo direct lithium extraction (DLE) before reinjection. With the United States urgently seeking to reduce dependence on imported critical minerals for the EV battery supply chain, Hell's Kitchen is increasingly viewed as a strategic national asset and has attracted major automotive and battery industry interest.

Controlled Thermal Resources is a private company. It has raised undisclosed private funding for the Hell's Kitchen project and is pursuing project-level financing for its integrated facility. In 2021, General Motors announced a collaboration agreement with CTR to source lithium from Hell's Kitchen for GM's Ultium EV battery platform — one of the most visible endorsements of the project's strategic value. Specific investor details have not been publicly disclosed.

Hell's Kitchen is designed to produce up to 49 MW of geothermal baseload power alongside up to 300,000 tonnes per year of lithium carbonate equivalent — one of the largest planned lithium production facilities in the Western Hemisphere. The project has been cited by California and federal policymakers as a priority for domestic battery supply chain development and has received significant regulatory attention as it advances through permitting and pre-construction. If completed at scale, Hell's Kitchen would represent one of the most consequential domestic critical mineral projects in U.S. history, delivering clean power and indigenous battery materials from the same geothermal brine.