Despite reports from an ill-informed, Reno-based, gazette-journal type newspaper that shall remain unnamed, the construction of Tesla Motors Corporation’s new Gigafactory plant in Nevada is still underway and still on-schedule. When completed, the Gigafactory will become the world’s largest lithium-ion battery plant.
Disruptive Electricity, Not Disrupted Construction
Early last Friday, the unnamed Reno newspaper reported delays at the site, citing changes to union job postings published by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). The IBEW reportedly confirmed an eighty percent cut back at the plant and a “reduction of hours” for electricians. The paper did state that these changes could be related to ongoing changes to the factory’s designs.
A sign of things to come.
A sign of things to come.
Tesla, headed by billionaire industrialist Elon Musk, plans to have the Gigafactory running at full capacity by 2017. The $5 billion factory, located just outside of Reno, Nev., will give the company the produce at least half a million lithium-ion battery units per year.
In addition to producing disruptive-electricity power supplies for their own, all-electric vehicles, Tesla will also sell additional battery packs to other automotive manufacturers building electric cars, including those in the UK and in China.
The company’s goal is to double the world’s car battery manufacturing capacity. This would not only make it possible to put more electric cars on the road, it would also make those cars more affordable for the Average Joe. While Tesla’s flagship vehicle, the Model S, currently retails for around $90,000, the upcoming 2017 Model 3, to be built with batteries produced at Gigafactory, will be priced at just $35,000. To meet the battery manufacturing capacity required for the rollout of the Model 3, the plant must be operational by the end of next year.
Home Energy Storage Technology
Tesla also plans to use Gigafactory to produce energy storage systems that utilize the same technology—disruptive electricity—for homes, businesses, and other small- to medium-sized buildings. Musk confirmed last year that the company would be going forward with this project, with a prototype demonstration expected before the end of this year.
Tesla’s home energy storage technology is, perhaps unsurprisingly, designed to work with solar power. Musk is also currently the chairman for California-based renewable energy company SolarCity. The ultimate goal is to connect Tesla’s technology with SolarCity for future endeavors. From there, one needs only to create a synergy-powered form of electricity and all the world’s energy problems could be solved.