Tesla Gigafactory Will Indeed Be 100% Renewable Powered

Originally published on CleanTechnica.

We recently covered a talk that JB Straubel gave at the University of Nevada — Reno. He gave the typical overview of Tesla, with updates on many of the projects it has going on, including the Gigafactory, which is just up the road from the university.

2014-08-28-Aerial-Perspective-Retouched

One piece of the factory that we have not seen many details on is related to the plan for on-site renewable energy production. All of the Tesla visualizations look similar to the one above… with a roof covered in what looks like photovoltaic solar panels and a hillside speckled with wind turbines. While that’s a nice picture, with the factory under construction, we would expect to see more details starting to come out… and they are.

Friend of CleanTechnica and Google+ user Renaud Janson flagged a key part of JB Straubel’s talk that touches on this critical detail. It was not a part of the main body of the message, instead tucked away in the Q&A as a response to a query from an environmental engineering major, Mackenzie Kohler, asking about Tesla’s efforts to manufacture its vehicles in an environmentally responsible way. JB Straubel lays out the next level of detail about the company’s plans.

“The Gigafactory is maybe the best example we can talk about with this. You know, from the get-go, from the first concept of this factory, we wanted to make it a net-zero facility. So, you know, the most visible thing we are doing is covering the entire site with solar power. The whole roof of the Gigafactory was designed from the beginning with solar in mind. We kept all of the mechanical equipment off the roof. We didn’t put extra, sorta, penetrations through the roof that we didn’t need to and it’s a very, very clean surface that we can completely cover in solar. But that’s not enough solar, though. So we have also gone to the surrounding hillsides that we can’t use for other functions and we’re adding solar to those.

The other interesting thing is we wanted to manage the emissions from the Gigafactory. Solar power can do some of that, but we took kind of a radical move in the beginning and said we are not going to burn any fossil fuels in the factory. You know, zero emissions. We are going to build a zero-emissions factory — just like the car. So, instead of kind of fighting this battle in hindsight, we just said we are not even going to have a natural gas pipeline coming to the factory, so we didn’t even build it. And it kind of forced the issue. When you don’t have natural gas, you know, none of the engineers can say, “Oh, but it will be more efficient, let me use just a little bit.” Sorry, we don’t even have it.

So it’s kind of been a fun activity and just, a lot of challenges that come up. But in every single step of the process, we have been able to reinvent and come up with solutions. There’s a heat pump technology that actually ends up way more efficient than just burning natural gas for steam. And then, we have a facility that has basically no emissions. The only emissions are related to the vehicles that might go there that aren’t electric or things like that. But we’ll try to attack that one piece at a time.”

The updated Gigafactory graphic that JB shared also includes fun details about the overall production capacity of the Gigafactory (50 GWh of batteries!):

Gigafactory goals

I especially love their purist approach to using natural gas — Nope! Don’t even run a pipe over to us… we’ll find a way. That sounds familiar and is no surprise coming from the guy who wants to take us to Mars, power the earth with solar panels, and use that electricity to power the masses of previously unheard of super EVs that Tesla will be producing using the batteries from the Gigafactory.

I wouldn’t call myself a fanboy of Tesla, but I am constantly inspired by and in awe of its bold approach to things we used to accept as givens in transportation, energy, and now, manufacturing.

Images by Tesla

6 thoughts on “Tesla Gigafactory Will Indeed Be 100% Renewable Powered

  1. Tesla also keeps repeating that 50GWh is enough for 500,000 cars! This very simple math really says a *lot* with regards to the car production in 2020. In 2020 they expect the *average* battery in a Tesla to be 100kWh!

    We can read this in many ways, but let me try two:
    1.)
    – 100,000 Model S/X with an average battery size of 150kWh (let’s say they offer 120+180kWh versions by then – sold in equal numbers) would use 15GWh’s worth of batteries.
    – 400.000 Model 3 would then have an average battery size of 87,5kWh! (maybe a 70kWh and a 100kWh version)

    2.)
    – 150,000 Model S/X with an average battery size of 150kWh would use 22,5GWh’s worth of batteries
    – 350,000 Model 3 would then have an average battery size of 78,5kWh (maybe 70kWh and 90kWh version)

    Any which way I read these numbers, we will have a *lot* of electric vehicles with *long* range rolling out of Tesla’s factories in 2020 and beyond…..

    1. Tesla will need MUCH Lithium to produce so many batteries . We invested in a Lithium company about 3 hours drive from Gigafactory . Company called Western Lithium by the way just merged with Lithium America company which by the way has contract with POSCO and should provide lithium by January 2016 . WL stock symbol WLCDF.

      IF Western Lithium signs a contract with Tesla All is Good !

  2. Only model X need very big battery. May be around 130kWh. Tesla motors said that they will increase battery capacity with 5-6% every year. Till 2020 we have 4 years left or 24% increase of capacity. Now the biggest battery pack is 90kWh and in the begining of 2020 they can have 115-120kWh. In the future will not be necessary to have bigger battery packs because there will be more Superchargers. Bigger battery means higher car price.
    This year Tesla should sale 50 000 Model S’s. Next year may they will sale and 30000 Model X’s. We can count and 60-100 000 Powerwalls yearly with 10kWh. Tesla has plans to make the new Roadster supercar. Till then may we will see and small crossover Model Y.

    If everything goes good for Tesla like now I see those numers in 2019:

    – 200 000 Models S/X/Y with average battery size 100kWh = 20GWh

    – 200 000 Models E with average battery size 70kWh = 14GWh

    Tesla may be will start to sell Model E in mid of 2017. It will be hard to reach production of 200 000 cars yearly after 2-2,5 years of production.
    “At full capacity by the year 2020, the Gigafactory is expected to produce 35 GWh of battery cells and 50 GWh of battery pack.”

    1. It is the battery pack value (50GWh) that is important, the difference in values is only the cells sourced/purchased from other cell suppliers.

      The numbers still means that the *average* car produced in 2020 will have 100kWh of battery capacity – meaning an *average* range of 300+ miles.

      1. I can’t wait till 2020 to see what Tesla will develop. It will be so interesting after 5 year and the cars will be so different.

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