Tesla's 'Dangerously Ambitious' Gigafactory Could Save U.S. Battery Business

Post by just2n » Sat, Mar 01, 2014, 2:00 AM UTC

derekp7 wrote: post #11

just2n wrote: post #10

What kind of draw can you put on these batteries? An 85kWh battery may be more useful in every garage than this article claims. The added expense is claimed to "keep consumers away", but really it means things like solar panels become more useful. If you are able to charge your car via power you generate and it can supply enough power back to run your home, you can get some huge benefits. You can have power at night…

So how would this work? During the daytime, you have your car with you at work, away from your solar panels at home. When your car is at home, it is night, so it is not charging then. During a power outage, are you really going to drain your source of transportation to power your house? Especially if you don't know when the power is coming back on to refresh your car batteries? I know I wouldn't -- I'd just fire up a…

Post by epistasis » Sat, Mar 01, 2014, 2:23 AM UTC

derekp7 wrote: post #11

just2n wrote: post #10

What kind of draw can you put on these batteries? An 85kWh battery may be more useful in every garage than this article claims. The added expense is claimed to "keep consumers away", but really it means things like solar panels become more useful. If you are able to charge your car via power you generate and it can supply enough power back to run your home, you can get some huge benefits. You can have power at night…

So how would this work? During the daytime, you have your car with you at work, away from your solar panels at home. When your car is at home, it is night, so it is not charging then. During a power outage, are you really going to drain your source of transportation to power your house? Especially if you don't know when the power is coming back on to refresh your car batteries? I know I wouldn't -- I'd just fire up a…

Post by toomuchtodo » Sat, Mar 01, 2014, 2:56 AM UTC

tlb wrote: post #9

thrill wrote: post #6

The statement at the end of the article that "[e]ven if the company fails to sell 500,000 vehicles a year, some of the gigafactory’s batteries could be used in the stationary storage market (which helps explain why he wants to build in the southwest, where solar and wind power farms can be incorporated.)" doesn't make sense to me as a reason even worth consideration, especially given in the same article is the statem…

The value of a finished battery pack is about $20 / lb. Truck transport across the US costs about $0.35 / lb. So indeed, proximity to installation locations makes less than 2% difference.

Post by shaunrussell » Sat, Mar 01, 2014, 3:46 AM UTC

Post by DaniFong » Sat, Mar 01, 2014, 3:54 AM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #17

DaniFong wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a founder of an energy storage company, Lightsail Energy. To say all government funded energy storage companies went belly up is an exaggeration. Many still survive, although you will note a strange anti-correlation between government funding and survival. In my opinion a lot of money did go in the wrong hands. The main problem is that the government is totally confused as to its actual funding strategy -- you ne…

> This was most problematic for the DOE Government Loan Guarantee program -- after Solyndra (a major recipient) went belly up, the government called on their debt in a series of energy storage companies, particularly A123 and Beacon Power. That was the bankruptcy trigger. Is it possible Tesla paid their DOE loan back early to prevent any volatility from that liability hanging out there?