Will the hells kitchen geo thermal project require alot of Industrial Outdoor Storage (IOS) Industrial Outdoor Storage (IOS)
Executive summary
The publicly available permitting, company and industry reporting makes clear that Hell’s Kitchen is a large, staged geothermal power and lithium-extraction industrial development with substantial construction and operational components — which implies meaningful demand for Industrial Outdoor Storage (IOS) during construction and some ongoing IOS during operations — but the sources do not quantify IOS area or capacity, so any estimate must remain qualitative [1] [2] [3].
1. Project scale and industrial character that drive IOS needs
Hell’s Kitchen is being developed as an integrated geothermal power and lithium/minerals processing hub with staged growth from an initial ~50 MW power plant toward several hundred megawatts and large lithium output, which by its nature creates heavy construction and industrial operations that typically require outdoor storage for equipment, pipe, modular process skids and bulk materials; the project’s public descriptions emphasize shared facilities, mineral processing, and medium-industrial zoning — all factors that point toward non-trivial IOS demand [1] [2] [4].
2. Construction-phase IOS will almost certainly be substantial
Controlled Thermal Resources commenced drilling and broke ground years ago and the project continues active construction and drilling phases, meaning prolonged staging yards for rigs, tubulars, pumps, earthmoving equipment and prefabricated process modules — standard practice for geothermal and chemical-processing plants — so the near-term need for large outdoor storage areas during phased construction is effectively guaranteed by the project timeline and construction history [1] [5].
3. Operational IOS: divergent signals in the record
Operationally, the project integrates lithium extraction and conversion into battery-grade chemicals on-site, which can reduce transportation but introduces requirements for tanks, reservoirs, reagent storage, finished-product staging and possibly brine handling infrastructure; CTR and partners describe on-site conversion and shared facilities, which suggests ongoing outdoor storage of process components and possibly bulk materials, although the project emphasizes enclosed processing and vertically integrated facilities in some publicity [6] [4].
4. Zoning, permitting and federal spotlight increase scrutiny but not specifics on IOS
Imperial County filings identify M-2-G-PE (medium industrial with geothermal overlay) land use designations for the proposed facilities, and the project has been accepted into FAST‑41 federal permitting oversight because of its strategic scale; these facts imply regulatory attention to site layout and environmental controls that typically regulate IOS footprint, drainage and screening — but none of the cited permitting pages or CEQA materials in the reporting explicitly list IOS area requirements or permitted outdoor storage quantities [2] [3].
5. Environmental and community considerations that can constrain IOS
Third-party trackers and environmental documents note wetlands and other sensitivities around Salton Sea developments that have already produced EPA attention in related matters, which creates plausible pressure to minimize open storage of hazardous or leachable materials and to prefer contained tanks, berms and lined pads — meaning regulators could limit certain categories of IOS even as they allow construction staging yards [7] [5].
6. Conflicting corporate framing and the limits of available reporting
CTR and partner materials promote the project as a compact, integrated minerals-and-power hub and highlight enclosed processing, which can be read as an argument against sprawling permanent outdoor yards; conversely, the scale of projected lithium and power output and the multi-stage build-out presented to federal and state agencies makes temporary and some permanent IOS a practical necessity — yet the public sources supplied do not state exact IOS requirements, sizes, or how CTR plans to stage versus enclose materials, so firm numeric judgments cannot be drawn from the available record [6] [1] [3].
Conclusion: balanced answer
Based on project scale, industrial zoning and the integrated nature of on-site lithium processing, Hell’s Kitchen will require significant industrial outdoor storage during construction and a measurable but likely more constrained amount during operations (bulk tanks/containers, modular equipment yards, finished-product staging); however, the sources provided do not specify square footage, permit limits or CTR’s detailed site-storage plan, so any statement beyond a qualitative “substantial during construction, moderate ongoing” assessment would exceed what the reporting documents support [1] [2] [6] [7].