Tesla's battery revolution is progressing steadily

ByCchana

As soon asFully automatic driving car realized in the first half of 2017It is Tesla led by CEO Earlon Mask that seems to be, but the company is in addition to electric carsPower WallWe also manufacture and sell energy storage devices called. Tesla products such as electric cars and power walls have similarities in that they both have a large battery. Tesla is building the largest battery factory in the world to manufacture batteries to be used with these, but Tesla's "business using batteries" is steadily progressing and Bloomberg It reports.

Tesla's Battery Revolution Just Reached Critical Mass - Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-30/tesla-s-battery-revolution-just-reached-critical-mass

Since Tesla aims to withdraw from the electricity using fossil fuel using millions of small batteries, in partnership with Panasonic, from 5 June 2014 it will spend over $ 5 billion (about 560 billion yen) in Nevada State We are building a new battery factory "Giga Factory" in Reno. If you read the following article you can tell what kind of facility this giga factory is and what kind of twists and turns before construction.

What is Tesla's world biggest battery plant "Giga Factory" built in the desert? - GIGAZINE


Tesla's ultra huge battery factory scheduled to be operated by 2020 "GIGA FACTORY" now - GIGAZINE


Originally it was Giga Factory that was scheduled to start operation by 2020, but in January 2017 the battery cellStart production, And the total amount of lithium ion battery cells produced by Giga Factory by 2018 is expected to reach 35 GWh per year.


The revolution using Tesla's battery is not done only in Tesla. From the underground storage facility in Porter · Lunch in Los Angeles, USAMethane gas leakedDid. Due to this problem neighboring residents are obliged to evacuate from October 2015, according to the report in February 2017, the total amount of methane gas that has flowed out will reach thousands of tons. Southern California · Edison, a power company, constructed a battery storage facility on the site of this underground storage facility at a rapid pitch to mitigate power outages in winter. Southern California · Edison ordered a battery of 80 MWh for Tesla for the battery storage facility and completed the construction of the facility in just 3 months I got it.

The fact that Tesla received a battery order from Southern California · Edison is reported in Japan as follows.

Tesla, Cost reduction due to mass production of large storage batteries from rice power: Nihon Keizai Shimbun


A storage facility where electricity is stored using a battery plays a very important role when wind power generation and solar power generation become mainstream as a power generation method. However, the idea of ​​storing electricity using a large-scale battery is still relatively new and its scale is not so large. Also, until recently, the cost of the battery was very high, there was a disadvantage that it was much higher cost compared with thermal power plants using natural gas etc.

However, the price of a lithium-ion battery, the core of a battery storage facility, has declined to less than half in just three years. This is because the demand for electric cars has increased, the demand for batteries of the same size as those used in battery storage facilities has increased, and it has become possible to manufacture at much lower cost than before.

The graph below shows the price of the battery per 1 kWh including the battery used for electric vehicles. The price is decreasing year by year, and it turns out that it is less than half the price three years ago in 2016.


Of course, not everyone is optimistic about the increase in battery demand, and Sekine Yayoi, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said, "(Market) is changing more swiftly than before, but still gigawatt scale There is no need for something of it. " Bloomberg points out that it is very difficult to evaluate battery cost and profitability. This seems to be because firms do not want to disclose price data on batteries and their costs are still variable.

However, the battery storage facility has a much smaller site area than the thermal power plant, it can provide better service than any other technology without polluting the atmosphere. In addition, Bloomberg notes that these facilities are increasing certainly although they are still a few, and batteries are already one of the "most economical options".


In addition to Tesla, some companies are paying attention to electricity storage devices using batteries. One of them, John Zahurancik, president of AES, has been working on an electricity storage project using a highly profitable battery since 2008, when the price of the battery was more than 10 times higher than the current price.

AES is constructing a facility of 30 MW / 120 MWh, which is larger than the 20 MW / 80 MWh electric storage facility Tesla built at Porter Lunch near Los Angeles. Furthermore, by 2021 we are planning to construct facilities that are five times the size of Tesla's.

AES Plans to Construct 300-MW Battery Storage System in California - LCG Consulting :: EnergyOnline
http://www.energyonline.com/Industry/News.aspx?NewsID=7930&AES_Plans_to_Construct_300-MW_Battery_Storage_System_in_California


Besides, as the biggest difference between Tesla and AES, Bloomberg pointed out "whether you can prepare batteries to use at your storage facilities yourself". Tesla is able to manufacture its own battery with GIGA FACTORY, and according to this vertically integrated business style, we can reduce cost and build a more seamless system. On the other hand, AES says, "By connecting with various suppliers, we can use the latest technology more cheaply".