Elon Musk confirms Tesla's new structural battery and cells will start in Europe

 From an article from electrek.com

Elon Musk has confirmed Tesla's new structural battery design, and 4680 cells are first going to Model Y, which will be produced at Gigafactory Berlin next year.

We already had a good idea it was happening since Musk teased that Tesla will introduce a "core structural design change" with Model Y produced in Germany, but it’s not confirmed.

The CEO confirmed on Twitter that the new structural battery pack technology will be first implemented in Berlin:

Berlin will use 4680 cell with structural battery pack & front & rear single piece castings. Also, a new paint system.

Lot of new technology will happen in Berlin, which means significant production risk. Fremont & Shanghai will transition in ~2 years when new tech is proven.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1313854912212750346

Oct 7, 2020

Tesla plans to first start Model Y production at Gigafactory Berlin during the second half of 2021.

 

Elon Musk confirms Tesla's new structural battery and cells are first going to Model Y at Giga Berlin
https://electrek.co/2020/10/07/elon-musk-tesla-structural-battery-cells-model-y-giga-berlin/
7 Oct 2020

 

A Demonstration Battery Energy Storage System in Poland is Now Operational

The focus of the system is dubbed a hybrid battery energy storage system (BESS). The system, which combines high-output lithium-ion batteries with high-capacity lead-acid storage batteries, is charged with a wind farm. The Combined capacity is 6 MW.

Highlights and a link to the press release are below.

TOKYO, Oct 2, 2020 - (JCN Newswire) - New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) and its project partners Hitachi, Ltd. (Hitachi), Showa Denko Materials Co., Ltd. (Showa Denko Materials) and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) announced today that the Smart Grid Demonstration Project in Poland, aimed at the expansion of renewable energy with a hybrid battery energy storage system (BESS) located at the Bystra Wind Farm in northern Poland reached monitoring phase in June and full-scale demonstrative operation phase on Sept. 25.

...

This hybrid BESS is Poland's largest-scale battery energy storage system, which combines high-output lithium-ion batteries with high-capacity lead-acid storage batteries, a combination to obtain high performance at low cost. The test operation will validate and prove the effectiveness of the functionality for alleviating short-term fluctuations in wind power generation and for providing necessary reserve power for adjusting demand-supply balance (load balancing).

...

The hybrid BESS introduced in this demonstration project consists of high-output lithium-ion batteries (1 MW-0.47 MWh) and high-capacity lead-acid storage batteries (5 MW-26.9 MWh) manufactured by Showa Denko Materials, the BESS-DCS (Distribution Control System) manufactured by Hitachi, which allows hybrid control of these two types of storage batteries, and the PCS (Power Conversion System), a 6 MW power converter manufactured by Hitachi ABB Power Grids Ltd. The system is the largest-scale storage battery system in Poland, offering a high level of performance at low cost.

 

Poland's Largest Hybrid Battery Energy Storage System Commence Full-scale Technology Demonstration
https://www.benzinga.com/pressreleases/20/10/a17776951/polands-largest-hybrid-battery-energy-storage-system-commence-full-scale-technology-demonstration
Oct 4, 2020
 

More media information on Airbus' Exit on Battery-powered Airplanes as it Moves to Hydrogen

CNN recently published Airbus' vision on future aircraft. Visually it is appealing.

This report adds to the previous reports. It is long and will let you read it and only quote this one paragraph, and several from another story from two weeks ago.

From the CNN story

The three ZEROe concepts program include a 120-200 passenger turbofan with a range of 2,000+ nautical miles, capable of operating transcontinentally and powered by a modified gas-turbine engine running on hydrogen. The liquid hydrogen will be stored and distributed via tanks located behind the rear pressure bulkhead.

Previously from flightglobal.com

Airbus is backing away from battery power in favour of pursuing hydrogen as a primary propulsion source for future aircraft development, over concerns that battery technology will not advance quickly enough to adapt to large airliners.

The airframer has unveiled three conceptual designs – two based on conventional turboprop and twinjet airframes, plus a third featuring a blended-wing fuselage design – as it commits to exploring a hydrogen-based zero-emission aircraft for potential service entry in 2035.

Speaking during a 21 September briefing, Airbus head of zero-emission aircraft Glen Llewellyn said that the airframer has seen a "decoupling" between the speed of battery technology progression and this 15-year timeframe.

 

 

 

Rocky Mountain Institute Study Shows Renewables Are Kicking Natural Gas To The Curb

https://cleantechnica.com/2020/10/03/rocky-mountain-institute-study-shows-renewables-are-kicking-natural-gas-to-the-curb/ 

DOE funds six Argonne National Laboratory battery manufacturing projects

In a widely reported press release by the DOE Argonne National Laboratory, the six projects are as such

Advanced brine processing to enable U.S. lithium independence

This research will create a more cost-effective process to produce lithium hydroxide ..

Industry partner: Albemarle/Ameridia (North Carolina).
Lead researcher: Jeff Spangenberger.
 

Hydrothermal production of single crystal Ni-rich cathodes with extreme rate capability

The hydrothermal process is a rapid potentially high-volume, tunable manufacturing method ..

Industry partner: Hunt Energy Enterprises (Texas).
Lead researcher: YoungHo Shin.
 

Continuous flow reactor synthesis of advanced electrolyte components for lithium-ion batteries

Argonne has developed a safer, more economical procedure for synthesizing trifluoropropylene carbonate (TFPC),  ..

Industry partner: Koura Global (Massachusetts).
Lead researcher: Kris Pupek.
 

Continuous high yield production of defect-free, ultrathin sulfide glass electrolytes for next generation solid-state lithium metal batteries

The goal of this project is to identify the source of defects in sulfide glasses and ..

Industry partner: PolyPlus (California).
Lead researcher: Tim Fister.

Scale-up production of graphene monoxide for next-generation lithium-ion battery anodes.

Graphene monoxide (GmO), a performance-enhancing component for lithium-ion battery anodes with the potential to improve safety, low-temperature operation and ..

Industry partner: SafeLi LLC (Wisconsin).
Lead researcher: Trevor Dzwiniel.

Scaling halide-type solid electrolytes for solid-state batteries

This project aims to develop, integrate and validate innovative processing technologies for a new class of lithium-ion conductors with ..

Industry partner: Saint-Gobain Ceramics & Plastics (Pennsylvania).
Lead researcher: Zonghai Chen.

Commercially viable process for surface conditioning of high-nickel low-cobalt cathodes (led by Brookhaven National Laboratory)

This project will take innovations in battery materials processing and characterization developed and implemented by Argonne and Brookhaven and apply them to battery electrode manufacturing processes ..

Industry partner: C4V & Primet (New York).
Lead researcher: Zonghai Chen.