That didn't take long

Elon Musk has announced gigafactory 2. Gigafactory 1 hasn't even been finished yet.

But it makes sense. Europe has a strong car market and Tesla would like to have their cars built there instead of having them shipped there with tariffs added. There will have to be another factory anyway if desired production numbers are to be met.

The announcement was made and Elon Musk said:

“This is something that we plan on exploring quite seriously with different locations for very large scale Tesla vehicles, and battery and powertrain production — essentially an integrated ‘Gigafactory 2,’”

Sounds like gigafactory 3 is already in mind. China maybe? How about South America? Australia?

And let's not forget that the PowerWall and PowerPack are huge battery projects in their own right. And capacity will have to include them as well. That's a lot of GWs.

And just how many cars is Telsa planning to produce? From the proceeds of gigafactory 1 it appears that the bar is set at about 1 million cars by 2020. And with gigafacory 2 perhaps they will be able to double that number in Europe.

I realize that gas-driven car production in the world dwarfs those numbers. But if expected production and sales of Tesla EVs come to fruition, then the tide of the future will be known. Magnetic drive will move into the car space like everyone knew the white LED would move into the flashlight space.

Other big players are ramping up in a similar way. Chinese battery factories feel the need to keep up with Tesla and they have the capital and business sense to always be an effective rival. And let's remember that VW isn't the largest car company in the world because they can't get customers the kind of cars they want.

UPDATE: Jaguar, owned by Tata Motors, has announced their BEV luxury sedan. The electric Jaguar is expected to have similar stats and as the Tesla model S.

And let's not forget Fisker... just joking, you can forget about Fisker.

The problem I see is that batteries aren't quite ready. The transition from oil powered transportation to magnetic drive might not sound like a big deal, but it will be profound. And Elon is betting the battery that is really needed will be available in the future and his factories will be ready to produce them like no one else.

Everyone seems to like this junk

The junk battery story has legs. I guess people are pretty excited about it. I had access to the source paper and it's a good read. Certainly techy enough to give you a great number of details on exactly what it takes to make the battery.

You can read in a number of stories from a number of outlets (https://www.google.com/#tbm=nws&q=scrap+battery) that give a good overview of what the researchers did. But no one that wrote a story about the battery actually tried to make one. I won't be able to either. So can it really be made by a DIY?

Let's take a look at a couple statements that have me tending to believe that perhaps this could be a small business venture, but probably above the ability of most handymen.

First, it isn't just scrapped metal that is involved. From the paper:

To individually assess the electrochemical performance of each electrode, we performed electrochemical measurements in a three-electrode configuration with the anodized scrap steel and brass as the working electrodes against a platinum or gold counter with a SCE reference (see the methods, Supporting Information).

Gold and platinum aren't easy to come by. However, I imagine that any non-ferrous metal could be used? Typically batteries use carbon as a counter. So if I understand correctly, platinum or gold are used to maximize performance when a lesser metal would work.

Then again, I could be wrong about this.

And here is a curious statement from an anodizing FAQ:

CAN PARTS WITH BRASS OR STEEL HARDWARE BE ANODIZED?

No. The part being anodized must only be aluminum. Anything else will be destroyed in the process.

 I'm sure this is only true under certain conditions. But anodizing brass and steel doesn't seem to be a common practice. And I'd be willing to bet that if anyone had tried this chemistry before they would have used anodizing to increase the surface area of the plates and to get an oxidized surface.

So perhaps this battery really is worth pursuing. Perhaps some enterprising DIY can put up a Youtube video and show us how it is done. If I get the time and money I'll try it myself.

It would seem with this much press the idea could get some traction.

What does the Trump win mean?

With Donald Trump winning the election, what can we expect in the energy storage sector? Call this the post-election predictions!

2 things should happen. Businesses are expecting the government to set their rules under Trump. This reduction of uncertainty should promote R&D. And since there is plenty of R&D that needs to go into the battery industry, we might expect battery startups to increase.

The second thing that should happen is tariffs. It's the only tool in the box for a government to protect its native workers. And that promise seems like one that Trump wants to keep. This does not bode well for the battery industry since it needs as many markets and worldwide innovation to grow as quickly as possible. Tariffs will slow that growth.

Will we see a change in how airlines treat lithium batteries? Probably not. Will we see a difference in environmental laws that impact the solar industry, and also the battery industry to some extent? Again, probably not. Will we see the government give out loans to certain companies like it did Fisker (Fisker did not pay back 139 million dollars of what they got from the taxpayers, by the way)? Probably not immediately.

But all this is a little speculative. We really are not sure exactly how a Trump government will shake out.

Perhaps you have some ideas, predictions, or admonishments you'd like to share with us. Comment below!

Fighting lithium fires

Lithium fires are particularly nasty. Depending on the kind of Lithium battery, water may or may not help.

Lithium batteries one will find in most handheld items; cell phones, laptops, tablets, and the like - do not have enough lithium in them to react with water so dunking them in water (or soda or whatever water-based liquid is handy) will help. This simply cools the battery so the reaction causing the fire will slow or stop. Using a regular fire extinguisher is not a bad idea, either.

There are other lithium batteries, perhaps bigger batteries that one might find in EV's or grid batteries, that have enough lithium in them that spraying water on them, or dunking them in water, will not have the desired effect because the lithium will react with the water. These are generally called Lithium Metal batteries. Reacting with water won't make things better and might make things worse, but to put fires out around a Lithium Metal battery is what water can be used for, so if water is all that is available, use it.

So in the case of a burning lithium metal battery, one should use a class D fire extinguisher. A class D fire extinguisher is for reactive metal fires and should not be used on other types of fires.

That being said, there are a couple new products out there just to help with this new first world problem.

A company called Spectrum FX is making a fire extinguisher that they say uses "Firebane" technology that they describe thusly:

Firebane® is biodegradable and human friendly. The agent has been accepted by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a replacement for Halon and listed on the Significant New Alternative Policy List (SNAP). As an Aqueous-based agent it is now included in the FAA AC 120-80A as a firefighting tool that can be used on commercial aircraft. Firebane is the only known Aqueous- based agent that also has Class D fire ratings.

Specifically formulated for the use in aircraft at very low temperatures, Firebane has a Pour Point at > 63 Celceus and is Soluble in Water.

 Spectrum sells this and other aircraft ready fire suppression kits. They also have a "fire sock" which is like a pouch to put a burning item into to contain it. Obviously, it comes with fire resistant gloves to get the object into the pouch.

There is another company, Viking Packing Specialist, that makes a fire pouch called AvSax.

And undoubtedly there will be companies that can offer the kind of solutions we'll need to deal with the problem of burning lithium batteries. Even if the problem might, for the most part, go away with safer chemistries.

Awesome Junk Batteries

There have been some advances in batteries that have not made it into mass production because manufacturing a 1-off in the lab is quite a different thing than having machines make millions a day in a factory.

But what if a battery was simple enough to be made by hand? Sure a person would have to put in some sweat equity, but if you really wanted an inexpensive battery there are a lot of people that would be willing to trade time and effort for a battery that worked nearly as well as what they could buy. Especially considering the best prices on a Lead Acid battery bank for a good sized solar install can easily run into the thousands of dollars.

And what if you could even, with a little more effort, make this battery from scrap materials? For example, instead of a scraper (a person who collects and recycles scrap for money) delivering their steel and brass to a scrap collector, one could have the scraper deliver it to them by offering a little better price.

And having mentioned steel and brass, those are the two metals that the researchers at Vanderbilt University have proposed for their scrap battery. Cary Pint is an assistant professor of mechanical engineering.

Pint said:

“We’re forging new ground with this project, where a positive outcome is not commercialization, but instead a clear set of instructions that can be addressed to the general public. It’s a completely new way of thinking about battery research, and it could bypass the barriers holding back innovation in grid scale energy storage,”

This sounds interesting, but what about performance? They claim a steel-brass battery can store about 20 Wh/kg and deliver 20,000 W/kg. That's not too bad for a homemade battery. Lead acid will give you more like 35-40 Wh/kg and deliver a whopping 20 W/kg...

Wait a second.

Lead acid batteries can deliver a lot of current. But supposedly this steel-brass battery can deliver a great deal more. Barring a typo, I'm impressed. Even at not quite 1/2 the capacity a steel-brass battery just might pay off. Especially at scrap prices.

So here's what might be wrong with this idea. Since the energy density is rather low, it's going to take almost 2 times as much battery to make a battery bank. The logistics of that seem a little daunting. Also, they said they could get 5000 cycles out of this chemistry, but they didn't tell us how deeply these can discharge without damage.

So we need a little more information, but it still sounds like something worth looking at.

VIEWS on BATTERY NEWS: Daylight savings time. Tesla's new 21-70 cell.

Daylight savings time has become the convenient interval to change one's smoke alarm batteries. Although it doesn't happen every 6 months. And 6 months is really far below the runtime of an alkaline battery in a smoke detector.

I guess daylight savings time used to be about a 6-month interval. And if one uses general-purpose or heavy-duty battery I certainly wouldn't want to have them go beyond 6 months. But an alkaline battery is so close in price to the lesser types that it makes sense to be sure you have one in your smoke alarm.

So pick either the start of daylight savings in the spring, or the end of daylight savings in the fall, and change them yearly.

Or, one might consider buying a lithium battery. Then it might be a good idea to wait for the smoke alarm to let you know when the battery is low. A lithium 9V battery will cost almost $10 and may very well last for 5-10 years depending on the smoke alarm. However, please at least test your smoke alarm every year even if you don't need to change the battery.



Tesla has a new size cell which they, and Panasonic who will actually manufacture it, say is the best size for energy density and manufacturing cost.

Previously Tesla was using the ever-so-popular size 18650 cell. This cell was 18mm in diameter and 65mm length as denoted by the name. Their new cell, the 21-70, will be 21mm in diameter and 70mm length, following a similar naming convention.

Elon Musk says the battery will have the highest energy density and also be cheap relative to today's alternate offerings.

Everything is going very well at the battery Gigafactory and we believe quite strongly that SolarCity’s technology on the Silevo front added to Panasonic ‘s cell technology will make it the most efficient and ultimately the cheapest solar cell in the world – just as it is with the battery cell. We have the best cell in the world that is also the cheapest cell.

What will the energy density be? And the final cost? It's hard to say at this point. Stay tuned and as soon as we find out you'll know.

More on - Fisker

Just an update on the latest goings on of Henrik Fisker.

Yeah, I know this horse is supposed to be dead... but I just don't trust it. So here we are again.

What we all really want to know about is the battery. Or supercapacitor really. And we get this gem of a quote from Jack Kavanaugh who's company is making this revolutionary technology:

“The challenge with using graphene in a supercapacitor in the past has been that you don’t have the same density and ability to store as much energy,” Kavanaugh said. “Well we have solved that issue with technology we are working on.”

Now, I don't mean to split hairs here too much, but this quote does not pass the smell test. Maybe Kavanaugh is just not a smooth talker. Or maybe he was asked a question off guard, or maybe he was thinking of something else when he said this. But "density" and "ability to store as much energy" is the same thing. And then he used the past tense when saying he solved the problem, but the present tense when he was working on it.

I think when he was speaking he was putting on his politician hat and trying to sound bigger and better than the technology actually is. He needed to sound savvy but vague. He's just not very good at it. And then he strung out a clause in the second sentence too by hedging the absolute statement that the problem was solved in the past by also adding that they were working on it in the present.

They should have had Bill Clinton make the statement. He is a great deal more talented than Jack Kavanaugh.

If they actually are successful in making a graphene supercapacitor that has a higher energy density than today's best Li-Ion cells, then I'll fully apologize and you can call me bad names out loud. You can even grumble bad things about me under your breath.

But I'm not too worried.

And just one more thing that has me calm about my view of the new Fisker Inc.; Did you see a picture of the doors on that car? It's like the tailpipe in your face all over again. Not that the doors will blow smoke in your face, but I'm predicting the rear door will be a head-shaker in the same way the tailpipe was.

I don't suppose someone has some Photoshop skills and can glean more information from this picture?

And don't worry. The next reveal by Fisker will be covered here even if it happens tomorrow.