Australia is in a prime position to make huge gains from being a large supplier of lithium, a product widely used in renewable energy projects said to be worth $400 billion.

Mark Twidell, director of energy at Tesla, the wealthy American-based electric vehicle and clean energy company, says Australia has substantial lithium supplies in the ground, making it well-positioned to derive enormous economic benefits as the transition to renewable energy speeds up.

“Australia has the raw materials in abundance like no other nation on Earth,” Twidell said at an entrepreneurs conference in Adelaide this week.

He estimated that Australia’s lithium ion battery value chain could be worth as much as $400 billion by 2030.

One battery at Hornsdale, near Jamestown in South Australia, has been constructed by Tesla and French group Neoen and is just one of about 40 now under construction, or in the planning stage, around Australia.