The Tesla Gigafactory is one of the hottest cleantech stories of 2014, if not the hottest. Someone recently passed along a cool Tesla Gigafactory infographic that includes quite a bit of interesting info about the lithium-ion battery gigawatt-scale factory.
Of course, it notes that the best way to bring down the price of electric cars is to bring down the price of batteries, and quotes the Tesla estimate that the Gigafactory will reduce battery cost by about 30% per kWh.
One fun fact is that the Gigafactory is supposed to have the same lithium-ion battery production capacity as was produced in all of 2013 by all producers all around the world. (That’s one reason why this is such a big deal.) Of course, this is just the first, and Elon Musk projects that we will need “hundreds of gigafactories” worldwide for electric car demand at some point.
The Gigafactory infographic also notes that graphite demand for the Gigafactory will be about ⅓ of total global graphite demand in 2013. Tesla’s lithium-ion batteries are also already responsible for 42% of global cobalt demand.
Lithium, of course, is another key input. But lithium is very abundant and Tesla’s lithium supply stream seems stable. It surely comes from Chile, as 96% of global lithium supply has come from Chile since 1996.
Aside from the inputs, the infographic notes that the Tesla Gigafactory will recycle old battery packs in order to reuse the remaining goodies inside, will be solar powered, will employ about 6,500 Earthlings (no Martians are scheduled to be employed there), and will take up about 10 million square feet of space (~174 football fields).
For more, or if you skipped my text just to see the infographic anyway, here’s the Tesla Gigafactory infographic from VisualCapitalist.com:
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