As long as the locals benefit and the environment doesn’t get destroyed ( which polluters frequently get away with due to the Republican legislature, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Dan_River_coal_ash_spill ) this is a sensible place to put industry. It is more stable environmentally than many other regions in the country where expensive industrial infrastructure is being placed (like the Southwest), has available labor for manufacturing, and is well connected to transportation.
Everything bad you expect is going to happen.
Grid storage only. But still cool
You say that as if solving grid storage wasn’t one of the most important problems humanity faces right now.
More grid storage means more capacity for renewables.
We’re desperately in need of low-cost grid storage for all our high capacity renewables. Especially down in spots like Texas, where wind energy will send prices into the negatives for a few hours a day, then natural gas collusion jacks prices up into the quadruple digits, an industrial scale battery system would flatten the price curve.
Great, finally some Sodium batteries that are not made in China.
cool to see that we’re finally getting local production of these things here in the US.
“It’s facilitated in part by a Job Development Investment Grant from the North Carolina Department of Commerce, which gives cash grants directly to a company when it creates jobs and invests in the state.”
I wonder if this makes it kind of like, although not equivalent to, a project labor agreement. I know North Carolina is a right to work state.
It would be nice for there to be union presence on a job this large. However small the chances of that may be.
I’m going to assume the community gets poison while the factory cranks out batteries, and delivers few jobs or taxes?
I’m also going to assume the community recognizes this but hopes to improve their area with new education and other investment? Or a lot of people were bribed ?
Am I wrong ?
These will be useless for EV’s, but great for storage. They aren’t energy dense enough for what the EV market needs.
Samsungs solid state EV batteries are currently the only positive step towards EV replacement and production vehicles are set to start rolling out around 2027. They’re supposed to be lighter, last more cycles, charge faster, more energy dense, and safer than current EV liquid lithium batteries.
The sodium ion batteries will be great for large scale solar storage and house/business solar storage. They should let someone build a solar powered house that could continuously run completely off grid without needing to use lithium batteries that would need replaced every 10 to 15 years.
Why not? From what I’ve seen, they’re about 75% as energy dense as lithium, and a lot cheaper. So if the Chevy Bolt gets 200-250 miles range on lithium batteries, I’d expect 150+ miles w/ sodium-ion, which is plenty for my commute. If the battery costs half as much and lasts 5-10 years, I’d buy that to replace my commuter in a heartbeat. Give me a commuter at $15-20k w/ 150 miles range and I’ll buy.
these batteries are a lot cheaper, and a lot more cycle resistant, which is what you primarily do for stationary storage, i think they’re probably safer as well?
It would make some EVs cheaper, but they would have less range, and it’s probably a little redundant considering you could just use less lithium ion batts instead.
Like the commenter said, we should be focusing on the solid state batts that samsung is fucking with, those are have REAL potential to be significantly better for EVs.
A solid state battery would likely be able to replace my family car, but I don’t need that for a commuter, I just need the battery to be cheaply replaceable and enough range to get to work and back. I think we should be looking at both options.
i mean sure, personally i doubt it’ll happen, im assuming they’re focusing on developing better battery tech first and foremost, though im guessing sodium ions would probably make their way into EVs eventually.
They already are… in China. I’m saying we should do that here in the US. We have the battery plant, so let’s put them in some inexpensive cars to replace commuters.
i dont think we’ve even broken ground on a sodium ion plant let alone making and production testing batteries for the market to begin with. I’ve got nothing aginst it, and EV manufacturers are probably going to do it, but whatever
Also you can buy a used prius for pretty cheap? The batteries aren’t that expensive to replace if they go bad/are bad.
Yup, and I currently drive a Prius. I’m looking at used Bolts ($13-15k used), but I’m a little worried about fire risk (it’ll be parked in my attached garage) and battery repair is going to be super expensive. A new sodium ion EV that’s much cheaper (say, $15-20k) would be attractive, but I’m definitely not paying >$30k for a commuter.
Sodium ion batteries on the market right now are about the same weight density as lithium poly batteries from a few years ago. It takes a few years for a newly manufactured battery to find its way into actual EV models. That means the newer sodium batteries have about the same performance as batteries in EVs right now. They’re also cheaper and are made of more abundant materials.
Don’t write off sodium batts in cars too quickly.
The factory making these is still like 6 years out. The ones on market are like 65% energy dense, and lithium tech has only gained a few percent a year, so I don’t know where you’re getting your thoughts from. For EV’S, sodium ion is going to be a far shot behind solid state. By the time sodium could catch up to being close to today’s lithium batts, solid state will be far cheaper and have a huge power density advantage.
and lithium tech has only gained a few percent a year
isn’t it about an 8% improvement year on year historically?
I double checked. It looks like about 5% per year.
yeah that seems about right, it’s still pretty good though.
Over 10 years that’s 50% more capacity compared to older cells.
It’s actually been about 8% in recent years, but historically 5%. We’ll see which one holds, but either compounds to doubling capacity in shorter time than you might think.
yeah, you would expect it to slow down over time, given the ever encroaching theoretical limits of technology, but obviously that depends on how far that is from here. Otherwise you generally expect to see an increase likely proportional to the amount of sold product (more R&D funding) as well as a function of competition, which is pretty high right now.
Idk, sounds like another FoxConn lie to siphon off public funds and underdeliver.
Any evidence to that effect, or is this just doomerism?
It’s called healthy skepticism and it saves lives. By preparing for all worst case outcomes we can help prevent them all.
It’s called healthy skepticism
Skepticism is healthy when you’re actually making a decision and you decide you need more information.
By preparing for all worst case outcomes
Are you actually making any preparations or are you just throwing out cynical assertions based on bad vibes?
So doomerism it is then…
Immediately assuming that every potentially good thing that happens is actually fraud, without evidence, is just paranoia.
Saying that it is a fraud publicly, without evidence, is just disinformation.
Believing things without evidence isn’t “healthy skepticism”, it’s just credulity. Don’t be a rube.
