Connect with us

Energy

Inside Tesla’s $5 Billion Gigafactory

Published

on

Inside Tesla's $5 Billion Gigfactory

Special thanks to Lomiko Metals (TSX-V: LMR) and Global Cobalt (TSX-V: GCO) for helping us put together this infographic.

Inside Tesla’s $5B Gigafactory

With $5 billion in capital expenditures and 6,500 high tech jobs, several states continue to court Tesla Motors to build their next megaproject within their borders. The Tesla Gigfactory, slated to open doors in 2017, will set a new precedent for economies of scale in battery production.

Tesla’s new factory will produce more lithium-ion batteries under one roof than all of 2013’s global production combined. As a result, the electric car company estimates this will cut costs per kWh by 30%.

Tesla’s product strategy relies on it. The Gen III is supposed to retail for only $35,000, which is only half the cost of the more upscale Model S.

UBS notes that raw materials make up 70% of the cost of each lithium-ion battery, so sourcing and procuring these minerals will be a very important component of their overall strategy. In the infographic, we break down the potential impact this will have on these commodities. Special thanks to Simon Moores and The Gold Report, who had a great interview recently on the subject.

Graphite:

In 2013, flake graphite production was 375,000 tonnes. The Gigafactory alone would add another 126,000 tonnes (34% increase) over 2013 production. Even more significant, the increase on battery-grade graphite demand would be 154%.

Cobalt:

55% of cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  Tesla says they do not source from the Congo, so this makes getting cobalt a little more difficult. 42% of cobalt demand is from batteries, making it the blue metal’s #1 use. Current Tesla batteries use about 9% cobalt by weight (NCA formulation).

Lithium:

There has been a steady supply of lithium in Chile since 1996, so this will likely be the easiest commodity to source.

Related Content

Infographic: 10 Mind Blowing Facts About Tesla Motors (TSLA)

 

13 Comments

Energy

How Much Does the U.S. Depend on Russian Uranium?

Currently, Russia is the largest foreign supplier of nuclear power fuel to the U.S.

Published

on

Voronoi graphic visualizing U.S. reliance on Russian uranium

How Much Does the U.S. Depend on Russian Uranium?

This was originally posted on Elements. Sign up to the free mailing list to get beautiful visualizations on natural resource megatrends in your email.

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a ban on imports of Russian uranium. The bill must pass the Senate before becoming law.

In this graphic, we visualize how much the U.S. relies on Russian uranium, based on data from the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA).

U.S. Suppliers of Enriched Uranium

After Russia invaded Ukraine, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Russian-produced oil and gas—yet Russian-enriched uranium is still being imported.

Currently, Russia is the largest foreign supplier of nuclear power fuel to the United States. In 2022, Russia supplied almost a quarter of the enriched uranium used to fuel America’s fleet of more than 90 commercial reactors.

Country of enrichment serviceSWU%
🇺🇸 United States3,87627.34%
🇷🇺 Russia3,40924.04%
🇩🇪 Germany1,76312.40%
🇬🇧 United Kingdom1,59311.23%
🇳🇱 Netherlands1,3039.20%
Other2,23215.79%
Total14,176100%

SWU stands for “Separative Work Unit” in the uranium industry. It is a measure of the amount of work required to separate isotopes of uranium during the enrichment process. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration

Most of the remaining uranium is imported from European countries, while another portion is produced by a British-Dutch-German consortium operating in the United States called Urenco.

Similarly, nearly a dozen countries around the world depend on Russia for more than half of their enriched uranium—and many of them are NATO-allied members and allies of Ukraine.

In 2023 alone, the U.S. nuclear industry paid over $800 million to Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy corporation, Rosatom, and its fuel subsidiaries.

It is important to note that 19% of electricity in the U.S. is powered by nuclear plants.

The dependency on Russian fuels dates back to the 1990s when the United States turned away from its own enrichment capabilities in favor of using down-blended stocks of Soviet-era weapons-grade uranium.

As part of the new uranium-ban bill, the Biden administration plans to allocate $2.2 billion for the expansion of uranium enrichment facilities in the United States.

Continue Reading

Subscribe

Popular