Tesla has plans to announce 4 more Gigafactories this year

[William Gayde]

Tesla's Gigafactory in Nevada is on track to be the largest manufacturing building in the world by footprint. It will help produce batteries for Tesla's automobile and other green energy related product lines. As if having the largest factory in the world wasn't enough, Tesla now has plans for several more.

A few months ago in an earnings call CEO Elon Musk revealed plans to announce 2 or 3 more Gigafactories this year. However, in a TED talk a few days ago, he bumped this up again when he said he "will announce locations for between two and four Gigafactories later this year – probably four.”

Most of Tesla's business is currently in the United States so it makes sense that Gigafactory number 1 is in Nevada with number 2 coming in New York. Musk believes it would take 100 Gigafactories around the world to fully transition to sustainable energy, so Tesla alone will bring us 5% there if they continue this aggressive strategy.

Many European countries have been pressuring Tesla to build the next factory in their borders. Musk has agreed that Tesla "needs to address a global market" but wouldn't give any more details. It would also make sense to build a factory somewhere in Western Europe given their progressive policies on clean energy. China too is likely high on the list given Musk recently met with top officials there. The fourth factory is anyone's guess but I would bet it shows up somewhere in the central United States.

The original Gigafactory has a capacity of 100-150GWh of batteries at full output. We don't know if the future buildings will have the same capacity but with so much invested in the future of renewable energy, we can definitely expect great things to come from Tesla and Elon Musk later this year.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/69146-tesla-has-plans-announce-4-more-gigafactories-year.html

 

[Uncle Al]

Certainly bold and impressive .... maybe even more so once we've seen the actual product it produces!

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

I can see Tesla bailing out of the auto manufacturing business when the proper manufacturers start rolling out their electric vehicles en masse and rather concentrate on this project supplying the auto manufacturers with the necessary batteries. Say whatever you like about him but Musk doesn't think small time and that man is nobody's fool.

 

[mbrowne5061]

A battery is not a "sustainable energy" source. A battery doesn't care if its power comes from coal or wind. Mining the lithium for these batteries isn't exactly or nor sustainable either.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

A battery is not a "sustainable energy" source. A battery doesn't care if its power comes from coal or wind. Mining the lithium for these batteries isn't exactly or nor sustainable either.

Everyone seems to forget that... the huge amount of resources that go into mining the materials necessary to make batteries. From the drilling machines and transport of materials down to the very workers driving their 1980's pickup trucks to the worksite, this isn't exactly a "green" process.

From the end user standpoint, electric cars are awesome. I want one. Unfortunately everything involved to create them is probably much worse for the environment than making a little four-pot car and shoving petrol into it every couple of weeks. All of these processes are much more refined and streamlined than battery production.

Which brings me to another thought, why is everyone so angry about the Keystone pipeline? This will get a good number of fuel hauling tractor trailers off the roadways, in the long run saving fuel.

 

[lipe123]

A battery is not a "sustainable energy" source. A battery doesn't care if its power comes from coal or wind. Mining the lithium for these batteries isn't exactly or nor sustainable either.

Batteries are the only way to store sun/wind/hydro power for later use, so yes they are an integral part of sustainable energy.

Quit throwing that silly argument out there that its soooo bad for the environment to mine for resources, its antiquated and silly.
Once there is a lot of these batteries in circulation there would also be a lot of recycling going on with less mining required.
Just because some mines are stuck in the past or because your reference to mining is outdated doesn't mean that's reality.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

Batteries are the only way to store sun/wind/hydro power for later use, so yes they are an integral part of sustainable energy.

Quit throwing that silly argument out there that its soooo bad for the environment to mine for resources, its antiquated and silly.
Once there is a lot of these batteries in circulation there would also be a lot of recycling going on with less mining required.
Just because some mines are stuck in the past or because your reference to mining is outdated doesn't mean that's reality.

Making lithium batteries is still a fairly new process, and there is a lot of room for improvement. And most of the mining for lithium is outside of the US, do you think these other countries care about the environment with regards to how efficient their process is? Or the companies mining the materials for that matter? Additionally recycling is still a huge problem for lithium batteries. Even a little research reveals the problems associated with manufacturing and recycling lithium batteries.

Batteries are still crap in my opinion, including the processes involved to create them. Sure crude oil extraction isn't good either but it's been happening for a long time and they pretty much have it down to a very efficient process.

 

[Qrash]

I wonder how easy it would be for Tesla to convert from Lithium-ion to a different battery technology in the future, such as the Nickel-3D Zinc battery technology that was described in a Science magazine article last week?

 

[ChrisH1]

Certainly bold and impressive .... maybe even more so once we've seen the actual product it produces!

Factory 1 has been mass producing batteries since Jan this year. It went into limited production back in 1Q 2016.

 

[Makson]

A battery is not a "sustainable energy" source. A battery doesn't care if its power comes from coal or wind. Mining the lithium for these batteries isn't exactly or nor sustainable either.

Batteries are the only way to store sun/wind/hydro power for later use, so yes they are an integral part of sustainable energy.

Quit throwing that silly argument out there that its soooo bad for the environment to mine for resources, its antiquated and silly.
Once there is a lot of these batteries in circulation there would also be a lot of recycling going on with less mining required.
Just because some mines are stuck in the past or because your reference to mining is outdated doesn't mean that's reality.

There are already billions of batteries already in circulation on our planet, and the greatest percent of them are in local dumps because every battery has a limited life.
Batteries for vehicles, batteries for tools and appliances, batteries for lap-tops and the mini computers with 'phone and camera. Batteries for toys, for ships, for boats, batteries manufactured with electricity, a large percent generated by coal-fired generators.
Batteries transported by fossil fuel powered ships to be off-loaded by fossil fuel powered cranes, then onto transport trucks and trains with engines using fossil fuel to storage sheds and stores, all built with material mined by fossil fuelled machinery, delivered to construction sites by fossil fuelled transport, and construction workers driving their vehicles powered by......fossil fuel.
Solar panels also have limited lives, manufactured using generators running on fossil fuel.
Their lives are even less near seas and oceans, cities with air pollution and are near useless in many countries in the Northern hemisphere as all generators relying on solar and wind weather conditions are unreliable
Tunnel vision and thinking that battery/electric vehicles is the way to go is wrong because scientist have the answer to nuclear power, safe to generate and safe to use.
A British submarine has been nuclear-powered for 20 years from a fist-sized portion of plutonium.
When using any battery-operated item, add the 'What If' factor, that's why smart people take a 'power-bank' with them when away from home with a '''''mobile computer/'phone/camera'''''.

 

[raypozas]

Think the factories should be in Spain for Europe(less weather problems and incentives would probably be better. In South East Asia in the Philippines or Singapore(perhaps in Palawan-few if any Typhoons) Politically better than other Asean nations. Being an Island is a big plus(Could supply even Australasia and other island states in the pacific). China and India are vast markets unto themselves and will do homegrown solar initiatives. In the future Africa perhaps in South Africa. And South America( in the most stable country of UNASUR)

 

[mbrowne5061]

Batteries are the only way to store sun/wind/hydro power for later use, so yes they are an integral part of sustainable energy.

My issue isn't with batteries, it is with lithium batteries on a 'power grid' scale. I should have been clearer in my wording.

Lithium batteries are not the only way to store energy for later use. Off the top of my head, I can think of thermal storage, compressed air, mechanical fly wheels, and water pools. All of these have been developed up to the commercial scale and have companies actively selling them. Except some forms of thermal storage that use some rare and/or volatile salts, none of these require the mining of rare earth elements, nor do they have the short life spans that lithium does.

 

[GirlDownunder]

40 (forty!) years ago, I remember seeing a small, solar-powered calculator for the first time.

Fast-forward to 2017. Think about it-- EVERYTHING tech has gotten: smaller, more efficient, & cheaper....except:

you got it, SOLAR, wind, anything non-fossil-fuel! Gosh, I wonder if big oil/gas/coal had anything to do with that?

I'm sick of the greedy sociopaths running OUR show, OUR planet, into the ground! The people, like Chump, who would gut their own kids if if got them anything positive from it. I'm even more sicked by those who jump up like the wicked-witche's monkeys-- to support & do the dirty-work of their "masters".

Now, Musk is trying again-- but I fear his selling out (if not already done) or assassination should he make good.

Our world is now run by greedy sociopaths for whom there is never enough power, glory, or wealth.