Follow the Battery Money

Dean Sigler Batteries, Diesel Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

With Tesla’s $5.5 billion “gigafactory” already producing cells for its line of cars and its “Powerwall” home energy storage systems, it now seems like a tenuous, toe-dipping approach with Volkswagen announcing its own battery plans.  VW may invest up to $15.5 billion according to Tech News, the outlet projecting the highest number.  Others with less money but promising technologies are also betting on better batteries. Tesla Gigafactory Grand Opening – More to Come With only 14 percent of its total area completed, the Tesla Gigafactory on Electric Avenue (what else?) near Sparks, Nevada, is already up and running, producing Tesla’s Powerwall and Powerpack battery systems.  According to Teslarati.com, “Elon Musk told investors at the 4th quarter earnings call earlier this month… those products are already profitable and are expected to become more so as volume increases.” Other projections anticipate that the Gigafactory will “be net zero and have no carbon emissions,” “net zero meaning that it will create more electricity …

Hope or Patience? Ennui or Exuberance?

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

EV-World.com first stymied this editor’s hopes, and then gave cause to hope at an elevated level.  Two articles in jousting juxtaposition explored this dichotomy. Anthony Ingram took a jaundiced view of present battery progress and the hopes for a more energy-dense future. He noted that, “There’s kind of a running joke within the electric car world that the next generation of batteries is just a decade away. And the next time you ask, it’s still a decade away. Even a decade later. “Well, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, the next generation of usable battery technology is – wait for it – around ten years away.” He explains that today’s EVs are running on ten-year-old technology, and that the most promising current new technologies could power the next decade’s cars. Keying from remarks by Tony Hancock of the Department of Energy’s Kentucky-Argonne Battery Manufacturing Research and Development Center, Ingram explains that, “current lithium-ion chemistry still has room for improvement, …