Green Energy Storage May be one of the most important Technology in the World Rig.
Nickel is the gold of the future. Tesla has signed contracts worth around US$5 billion to buy nickel for its batteries from nickel-processing companies in Indonesia.
Tesla has been working on a high nickel cathode battery that has zero cobalt content. By using nickel Tesla can get a 15 per cent reduction in the cost of its battery cathodes on a US dollar per kilowatt hour basis.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk says, “Tesla doesn’t have enough cells to put new products like Semi truck into production. Tesla battery needs 50kg of nickel, to power 2 billion cars with new batteries 100 million tons of nickel is needed”.
Mr: Musk said “The main reason we have not accelerated new products like the Tesla Semi is that we simply don’t have enough cells built. We could easily go into the production of the Semi, but we don’t have enough cells for it right now.”
Elon Musk has a plea for mining companies: “Please mine more nickel.” “ Tesla will give you a giant contract for a long period of time if you mine nickel efficiently and in an environmentally sensitive way,”
Since lithium is “just like widely available”, according to Musk and Tesla’s scientists, they have eliminated other hard to come by metals like graphite (replace it with sand, obvs) and cobalt from batteries Musk’s prime raw material worry is nickel.
“There is enough lithium in the US to convert the entire US fleet to electric, all the 300 million cars in the US, using only lithium discovered in the US,” said Musk.
Musk said that “Tesla will reach production of 20 million vehicles per year before 2030”.
The global electric automobile market share is increasing and is forecast to continue to grow rapidly in the coming years. Some predictions suggest they will make up more than 90% of vehicles by 2050, most of which will be powered by nickel-containing Li-ion batteries and magnesium batteries.
Using nickel in car batteries offers greater energy density and storage at lower cost, delivering a longer range for vehicles, currently one of the restraints to EV uptake.
Batteries for storage:
New nickel-containing battery technology is also playing a role in energy storage systems linked to renewable energy sources. Wind turbines or solar panels generate electricity when the wind or sun is available; modern battery technology allows this energy to be stored for use as and when required.
There are about 3,000 nickel-containing alloys in everyday use, including 300,000 products for consumer, industrial, military, transport, aerospace, marine and architectural applications.
The nickel metal is tough, corrosion resistant, hygienic and 100% recyclable. It is essential to building and infrastructure, chemical production, communications, energy supply, environmental protection and food preparation.
Nickel is combined with other metals to produce alloys with a combination of properties that provide both ductility and strength at high temperatures.
