batteries

Today, I updated much of my lawn equipment to electric and not just because it is better for the environment – there are tons of reasons well, 11 listed below, to make the move. Until recently, electric lawnmowers, chainsaws, edgers, snowblowers, etc weren’t’ as powerful as their gas counterparts. However, with Greenworks and others making the jump to 80V products, the high end of electric lawn tools now compete well on power with standard gasoline-powered competitors.

I have Greenworks products (40V Mower/chainsaw, corded snowblower) that work well, but I’ve not tried or used the 80V products I purchased today.  These are way more hardcore:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLVZPjIRRZk

So if they are roughly equivalent to the power of gas, and often cheaper, what other advantages can you expect to see?
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Dyson, a British technology company best known for designing and manufacturing vacuum cleaners, is reportedly building an electric car following investments in solid state batteries. Last year, we reported on the company acquiring Michigan-based solid-state battery startup Sakti3 for $90 million and announced plans to build an important $1 billion battery factory to mass produce the next generation battery technology.
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As we reported on Friday, local Reno media outlets were given rare access to the Tesla Gigafactory and we even got our very first glimpse of the manufacturing floor. Though reporters were not allowed to take footage of the assembly line and it looks like all pictures were from the same angle near the offices.

Now it appears that someone with better access leaked several pictures of Tesla’s Powerwall and Powerpack assembly line, and it’s awesome.
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Tesla’s Gigafactory, which is located near Reno in Nevada, was busy with outsiders this week. After CEO Elon Musk and SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive organized an event Wednesday night for Nevada politicians and top government officials, today local media were given access and were even allowed to take a few pictures inside.
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In an effort to lobby Nevada lawmakers for the development of solar energy following the Public Utilities Commission’s decision to slash net metering, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive organized an event Wednesday night at the Gigafactory for Nevada politicians and top government officials.

Tesla and SolarCity executives held presentations meant to be “forward-looking and educational” and the whole event also included a tour of the Gigafactory.
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Florida-based li-ion battery maker Oakridge Global Energy Solutions recently confirmed a battery supply agreement with Freedom Trucking in Minnesota. In the announcement, Oakridge is making some impressive claims, especially that the battery-powered drivetrain will enable interstate trucks with a gross vehicle weight (GVWR) of 80,000 pounds to travel more than 400 miles.

Battery-powered trucks not only reduce air and noise pollution, but they are also believed to be the next important step, alongside self-driving technology, in significantly reducing logistic costs associated with trucking.
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Last month, Porsche said that it wouldn’t be quite as profitable in the short-term due to a significant investment of €1 billion and the hiring of 1000 workers to start making all-electric cars, more especially, to make its upcoming Mission E.

The German luxury automaker, which is part of the Volkswagon Group, has yet to announce any details of its battery pack other than what we can see on the picture above, but today we learn that the battery supply contract now comes down to a competition between Panasonic and Bosch.
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An interesting fact about lego bricks: the first hands to touch a Lego brick are the hands of a customer since the entire manufacturing process is automated.

Granted, plastic blocks are significantly less complicated than li-ion battery cells, but since Tesla hired a long-time Lego manufacturing executive to lead the Gigafactory effort, it is an interesting analogy for the potential level of automation at Tesla’s battery factory.
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The U.S. Department of Energy invests in early stage energy projects through its Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E, in order to develop breakthrough technologies that could make renewable energy cheaper and better.

ARPA-E Director Dr. Ellen Williams (on the right above), a chemist best known for her research in surface chemistry and for being former chief scientist at BP, gave an interview this week in which she made controversial remarks about Tesla Motors’ work on battery technology. She highlighted Tesla’s battery manufacturing initiative, but added that it is not technology innovation.
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Daimler announced today an important €500 million ($543.5 million) investment in a new battery factory in Kamenz, Germany, through its ACCUmotive subsidiary. The company already has a relatively small battery plant at the location, but it purchased 20 hectares of land adjacent to the existing plant and plans to build a new factory to produce li-ion batteries for the electric vehicles of its Mercedes and Smart brands.

To be clear, two years ago, ACCUmotive invested about €100 million to expand the current plant, which now has 20,000 square meters (~215,000 sq-ft) of production aera, but this new investment is for an entirely new factory of 40,000 square meters (~430,500 sq-ft) of production space.
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An undisclosed company, which claims to be a “well-funded American company”, purchased advertising in the Wall Street Journal to invite a “select” group of people to the unveiling of its research and data on a new high-energy density battery cell.

The mysterious company is only inviting representatives from “product manufacturers listed on the NYSE or NASDAQ having a market capitalization of more than $500 million”. Investment bankers, venture capital companies, government representatives, or members of the press are not allowed to attend the event.
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Recent pictures of Tesla’s Gigafactory 1 in Nevada have been scarce since two journalists from Gannett’s Reno Gazette Journal (RGJ) were involved in an altercation with two Tesla safety managers on the property while they were trying to take pictures. Though we can’t really confirm that this incident is the cause of the recent shortage of images.

Las week we managed to find two pictures taken from the ground near the factory earlier in the month, but today we get our best look at Tesla’s battery factory in months with a new gallery of aerial pictures taken earlier today (24/02/16).
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Germany-based solar energy component supplier Memodo confirmed having received a large shipment of Tesla Powerwalls this week and that installations will start soon.

Memodo CEO Daniel Schmitt claims that his company is the first Tesla Energy distributor to receive the new home battery pack in Germany and he shared the picture seen below.
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SK Innovation, a battery cell maker part of the South Korea-based chemical and energy conglomerate SK, confirmed (via GreenCarCongress) that it has been selected as the supplier of battery cells for Mercedes’ upcoming line of electric vehicles.

Last month, Daimler green-lighted 4 new long-range electric vehicles, which will reportedly be two sedans and two crossover SUVs. The automaker will need an important volume of battery cells if it plans to manufacture these upcoming vehicles in significant volume.
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Just a week after the first Tesla Powerwall for residential use in Australia has reportedly been installed in a Sydney suburb, it’s now the UK’s turn to get its first Tesla home battery pack. Homeowner Mark Kerr has become the first British Tesla Powerwall owner after a SolarPlant engineer installed the system at his home in Wales.
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Mateo Jaramillo is a veteran at Tesla. He joined the automaker in 2009 as commercial lead on OEM powertrain sales for development and production contracts, and he became Director of ‘Tesla Energy’ when the company started the division in 2014 – before launching the product line in April 2015.

He was recently promoted to ‘Vice President Products & Programs – Tesla Energy’ as the company is ramping up its effort in stationary energy storage. Around the same time that Tesla promoted Jaramillo, the company also hired Trinasolar’s President of Europe and Africa, Ben Hill, to lead its energy division in same the markets.
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Panasonic is investing 50 billion yen ($412 million) in China to build a lithium-ion battery factory aimed at the electric vehicle market, according to a new report from Nikkei. The annual capacity is projected to be the equivalent of “around 200,000 electric vehicles”, but we don’t know the average capacity per vehicle.
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Dyson, a vacuum cleaner manufacturer turned tech company, acquired Michigan-based solid-state battery startup Sakti3 for $90 million and announced plans to build an important $1 billion battery factory to mass produce the next generation battery technology.
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